The Parliament voted in favour of the new law after discussions by the Parliament-Council Conciliation Committee. It will give citizens greater rights to seek information from national, regional and local authorities on environmental issues such as new building projects or pollution.
Aarhus Convention
The law is the first of three planned directives on public access to environmental information – including contamination of the food chain – which are intended to bring EU law in line with the UN 1998 Aarhus Convention on information, decision-making and redress in environmental matters. But the final version of the law goes even further than the Convention requires.
A European Parliament spokeswoman commented: “Public officials will be obliged actively to assist citizens seeking information. Where documents are withheld under the exemptions allowed in the directive, they will have to be listed. Moreover, contact details and dates form the completion of documents will have to be provided when draft or internal documents are withheld.”
Charging
Initially, information should be provided for free, but “reasonable” charges could be levied, and a market-based charge could be made for information provided on a commercial basis, the Parliament and Council agreed.
The Parliament also introduced quality standards to ensure information supplied by Member States is accurate and up-to-date, and included a provision encouraging the use of IT in providing information.
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