Introduction

Aarhus Convention is a multilateral environmental agreement through which the opportunities for citizens to access environmental information are increased reflecting the concepts of open society (Karl Popper) and participatory democracy. The main addressees of the obligations contained in the Convention are the public authorities, which are defined so as to cover governmental bodies from all sectors and at all levels (national, regional, local, etc.) and bodies performing public administrative functions. Therefore, Aarhus Convention constitutes also a binding international instrument to address government accountability, transparency, democratization and access to justice.

It is a way of enhancing the environmental governance network, introducing a reactive and trustworthy relationship between civil society and governments and adding the novelty of a mechanism created to empower the value of public participation in the decision making process and guarantee access to justice.

Access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice refer to numerous contexts, data, procedures and matters. The 1992 Rio Declaration sets the policy direction for public participation as a part of environmental governance, but it does not specify – nor exclude – any particular form of environmental decision-making for public participation. Nor does it provide any minimum standard for such participation or design the processes.

The support for the three “pillars” takes different forms in different environmental agreements: geographically, in the degree of details and ambitions, and in the scope of procedural issues provided for. The close connection between access to information and public participation is revealed in the jurisprudence of human rights bodies.
The European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights all make links between these two issues.

Some environmental agreements somehow support the general notion that members of the public should be informed, be able to make their own views and, in some treaties, be able to express these views in decision-making processes. Other environmental agreements with global reach that approve access to information and public participation in decision-making aim at improving public awareness about environmental problems and public engagement and participation in these fields. Others go even further and actually oblige the parties to ensure public access to information and public participation in matters covered by the agreements.

At EU level, the Aarhus Convention constitutes a benchmark and part of the EU acquis. Member States across EU implement Aarhus requirements via the relevant EU law provisions according to the following schema:

Aarhus Convention at EU law landscape
• EU institutions: Aarhus Regulation 1367/2006
• Member States:
  • Access to Information --> Directive 2003/4
  • Public participation in decision-making --> several directives
  • Access to Justice --> CJEU case law
• Commission Notice on Access to Justice in Environmental Matters – C(2017)2616 final