The UN Committee charged with ensuring citizen’s rights to access of information and justice in environmental matters has found that the EU has breached its obligations by making it difficult for groups and individuals to bring environmental cases to the EU Courts.
ClientEarth had brought a case in 2008 against the EU claiming that the EU had been blocking the democratic process by not giving individuals and groups the opportunity to bring cases on environmental matters before the Courts. The EU Commission claimed that there was ample opportunity for litigants to go to the Courts for such matters, however this was shown to be false as no such case has ever gone before the Court of Justice of the European Union. The UN committee on this occasion found that the EU needed to change in order to allow for proper access to the Courts and that legislation be made which clearly provided for the relevant sections of the Aarhus Convention.
The Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee had previously ruled that the EU was in breach of its obligations. This ruling will place further pressure on the EU to examine what mechanisms are required for litigants seeking to challenge the EU on environmental matters.
The Committee found that the EU had not laid down a proper regulatory framework for implementation of the Aarhus Convention and public participation by the Member States. It also found that the EU Commission had failed in its monitoring responsibility in relation to one of its Member States. The Committee went on to suggest that the EU needs to better monitor how its Member States implement the Convention through legislation. The Committee finally added that the EU generally needed more transparency in its system.
ClientEarth lawyer Anais Berthier saw the ruling as “a huge win for EU democracy. The EU signed a UN convention in 1998, guaranteeing people the information and court access they need to enforce environmental law. But no individual or NGO has ever been allowed to challenge the EU institutions before the Court of Justice. This is stark proof of the EU’s persistent democratic deficit.”
The EU will meet with other countries that have ratified the Aarhus Convention on how to implement the findings of the Committee.
Readers of the PILA bulletin will recall that PILA has written about the work of ClientEarth in the past, particularly in relation to the cost of taking strategic litigation on environmental issues (click here for a copy of Client Earth’s statement on the decision).
Click here for the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee’s report on the matter.
Details of the UN’s findings on the matter can be accessed here.