The Aarhus Convention

On 14 April 2010 the Commission adopted a report on the application and effectiveness of Directive 2003/35/EC (COM(2010)143), compiled pursuant to its Article 5. The aim of this Directive is to give fuller effect to the Aarhus Convention of 25 June 1998, to which the EU has been party since 17 May 2005.

Although the Directive does not explicitely stipulate that Member States are to submit to the Commission national reports on the experience acquired, the Commission felt that it needed to be able to draw on information gained by them. The level of information and detail in these contributions differs considerably.

The report is limited to an examination of Article 2 of the Directive (public participation concerning plans and programmes), due to the fact that aspects dealing with Article 3 of the Directive (public participation and access to justice in EIA - Environmental Impact Assessment) were examined in a Commission Report of 23 July 2009 (COM(2009)378) and those elements relating to Article 4 of the Directive (public participation and access to justice under IPPC - Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control) will be dealt with in the report to be compiled pursuant to Article 17(3) of Directive 2008/1/EC.

This is the first Commission report on the Directive, hence its significance.

TEXT OF THE REPORT IN ALL OFFICIAL LANGUAGES