Strasbourg, 06/07/2006 (Agence Europe) - From mid-2007 EU institutions and bodies (such as the European Food Safety Authority and the European Chemical Products Agency, for example) will be compelled to guarantee the public access to information and participation in its decisions, as well as access to legal services involving environmental issues. This forms part of the European Regulation that will transpose into Community law obligations defined in the UN's Aarhus Convention concluded in 1998. Following the line of its rapporteur, Eija-Riitta Korhola (EPP-ED, Finland), the European Parliament has facilitated this progress through its confirmation on 4 July of the Parliament/Council conciliation paper on this legislation that guarantees increased transparency and participative democracy (EUROPE 9184).
Although environmental NGOs welcome this progress, it did not receive unmitigated enthusiasm because, contrary to the hopes they had been nursing, the doors of the European Court of Justice still remain closed to them. Commenting on Parliament's vote, John Hontelez, the director of the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), declared, “This is a step forward for the EU's transparency and accountability to its citizens. The EU takes important decisions that affect people's health and the natural environment. The Regulation improves access to environmental information and public participation but we are disappointed at the refusals of the Council and Parliament to follow the Convention and provide more effective access to justice at EU level in cases when EU Institutions fail to apply or defend EU environmental law”.
The Green/EFA group at Parliament is also disappointed by the text, which, as underlined by Margarete Auken (Danish Green), results from, “a weak compromise that does not give enough powers to environmental organisations…and prevents them from correctly controlling implementation of environmental legislation”.