ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION IN THE EU AND ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

Abstract

The right to access to environmental information is one of the most important issues today in general as well as in the EU environmental legislation. It is closely linked to many other fields but especially to the protection of human rights. The article deals with the attempts within the frame of EU to regulate this matter. Several documents dealing with the right to access to environmental information have been accepted within the framework of the EU. Besides that the Union has been engaged in the process of regulation the issue on the pan European level, the result of which has been the acceptance in 1998 of the Convention on Access to Environmental Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus Convention) which has become a part of EU environmental law due to the fact that the Union has become a party to it. Although the mentioned EU documents as well as the Aarhus Convention deserve criticism they are, generally speaking, a step forward in the field. The very fact that the right to access to environmental information has been accepted and included in binding documents is certainly a positive development for both environmental law and the whole field of human rights protection, provided that they are further improved in not so distant future, from several points of view and especially when the weak compliance mechanisms and the long list of exemption of information are concerned.