Access to Justice

The provisions on access to justice on the EU level can be found in Title IV of the Aarhus Regulation1367/2006. According to Article 10, NGOs, which meet the criteria established in Article 11, are entitled to request an internal review into the Union institution or body that has adopted an administrative act or should have adopted an act (administrative omission) within six weeks after the act was adopted, notified or published (in case of an administrative omission, six weeks after the date the act was required), stating the grounds for the review in written form.

The Union institution or body has to consider such a request and give a reasoned reply within 12 weeks after receipt or, in case that it is not able to do so after exercising due diligence, notify the NGO of the reasons for the failure to act and its intention to do so, within the time frame. The NGO which issued the request for internal review is entitled to institute proceeding before the Court of Justice of the European Union (Article 12(1)). Indicatively, case C-401/12 P Council v Vereniging Milieudefensie and Stichting Stop Luchtverontreiniging Utrecht concerns a request for internal review submitted to the Commission by a Dutch NGO challenging the decision of the Commission to accept the postponement on behalf of the Netherlands as regards the deadline for attaining the annual limit values for nitrogen dioxide in nine zones in accordance with Article 22 of the Ambient Air Quality Directive 2008/50/EC.