MEPs strengthen public access to environmental policy-making

The Parliament has amended a Council decision in order to improve access to information and public participation in EU environmental decision making, but it refused to give NGOs the right to take member states to court.

The Parliament adopted the Korhola report on the application of the Aarhus Convention for the EU institutions and member states on 18 January. MEPs amended the Council’s Common Position  in several respects, so a conciliation procedure will  be necessary to finalise this issue.

The most important amendments adopted:

• broadening the scope to include sustainable development;
• inclusion of banking activities (e.g. from the European Investment Bank)
• less exceptions to the transparency rules.

To the disappointment of green NGOs, the Parliament rejected an amendment that would have given non-governmental organisations the right to take a member state or an institution to the European Court when it believed that a public authority was not applying environmental laws properly. 

Chemical Industry Federation CEFIC had lobbied intensively against this amendment, calling it “environmental discrimination”. According to CEFIC, this NGO access to court would have raised problems of competitiveness and security and would have endangered “the right balance between a desirable involvement of the public in environmental matters and the safeguarding of proper administration of justice”.

The Aarhus Convention  was concluded in 1998 by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. It foresees access to information, public participation in decision making and access to justice in environmental matters. The EU ratified the Aarhus Convention on 17 February 2005.

Read more with Euractiv

Commission orders Greece to lift its national ban on GM maize

The Commission has decided that the Greek national ban of MON810 maize is not properly justified and has therefore ordered Greece to lift the ban.