Legal provisions of COM(2020)642 - Amending the regulation on application of the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making, Access to Justice in Environmental Matters

Please note

This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.

dossier COM(2020)642 - Amending the regulation on application of the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in ...
document COM(2020)642 EN
date October  6, 2021


Article 1

Regulation (EC) No 1367/2006 is amended as follows:

(1)in Article 2(1), points (g) and (h), are replaced by the following:

‘(g)‘administrative act’ means any non-legislative act adopted by a Union institution or body, which has legal and external effects and contains provisions that may contravene environmental law within the meaning of point (f) of Article 2(1);

(h)‘administrative omission’ means any failure of a Union institution or body to adopt a non-legislative act which has legal and external effects, where such failure may contravene environmental law within the meaning of point (f) of Article 2(1).’;

(2)Article 10 is amended as follows:

(a)paragraphs 1 and 2 are replaced by the following:

‘1.   Any non-governmental organisation or other members of the public that meet the criteria set out in Article 11 shall be entitled to make a request for internal review to the Union institution or body that adopted the administrative act or, in the case of an alleged administrative omission, should have adopted such an act, on the grounds that such an act or omission contravenes environmental law within the meaning of point (f) of Article 2(1).

Such requests shall be made in writing and within a time limit not exceeding eight weeks after the administrative act was adopted, notified or published, whichever is the latest, or, in the case of an alleged administrative omission, eight weeks after the date when the administrative act was required. The request shall state the grounds for the review.

2. The Union institution or body referred to in paragraph 1 shall consider any such request, unless it is manifestly unfounded or clearly unsubstantiated. In the event that a Union institution or body receives multiple requests for review of the same administrative act or administrative omission, the institution or body may combine the requests and treat them as one. The Union institution or body shall state its reasons in a written reply as soon as possible, but no later than 16 weeks after the expiry of the eight weeks deadline set forth in the second subparagraph of paragraph 1.’;

(b)in paragraph 3, the second subparagraph is replaced by the following:

‘In any event, the Union institution or body shall act within 22 weeks of the expiry of the eight weeks deadline set out in the second subparagraph of paragraph 1.’;

(3)Article 11 is amended as follows:

(a)the following paragraph is inserted:

‘1a.A request for internal review may also be made by other members of the public, subject to the following conditions:

(a)they shall demonstrate impairment of their rights caused by the alleged contravention of Union environmental law and that they are directly affected by such impairment in comparison with the public at large; or

(b)they shall demonstrate a sufficient public interest and that the request is supported by at least 4 000 members of the public residing or established in at least five Member States, with at least 250 members of the public coming from each of those Member States.

In the cases referred to in the first subparagraph, the members of the public shall be represented by a non-governmental organisation which meets the criteria set out in paragraph 1 or by a lawyer authorised to practise before a court of a Member State. That non-governmental organisation or lawyer shall cooperate with the Union institution or body concerned in order to establish that the quantitative conditions in point (b) of the first subparagraph are met, where applicable, and shall provide further evidence thereof upon request.’;

(b)paragraph 2 is replaced by the following:

‘2.The Commission shall adopt the provisions which are necessary to ensure that the criteria and conditions mentioned in paragraph 1 and the second subparagraph of paragraph 1a are applied in a transparent and consistent manner.’;

(4)the following article is inserted:

‘Article 11a

Publishing of requests and final decisions, and online systems for receipt of requests

1. Union institutions and bodies shall publish all requests for internal review as soon as possible after their receipt, as well as all final decisions on those requests as soon as possible after their adoption.

2. Union institutions and bodies may establish online systems for receipt of requests for internal review and may require that all requests for internal review be submitted via their online systems.’;

(5)Article 12(2) is replaced by the following:

‘2.   Where the Union institution or body fails to act in accordance with Article 10(2) or (3), the non-governmental organisation or other members of the public that made the request for internal review pursuant to Article 10 may institute proceedings before the Court of Justice in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Treaty.’;

(6)throughout the text of the Regulation, references to provisions of the Treaty establishing the European Community (EC Treaty) shall be replaced by references to the corresponding provisions of the TFEU and any necessary grammatical changes shall be made;

(7)throughout the text of the Regulation, including in the title, the word ‘Community’ shall be replaced by the word ‘Union’ and any necessary grammatical changes shall be made.

Article 2

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

Article 1, point (3)(a), shall apply from 29 April 2023.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.