European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly is seeking the public’s view on how transparent EU decision-making is in relation to the environment.
The public consultation, which closes in just over a month’s time, relates to decisions involving both the marine and terrestrial environment.
The consultation’s aim is to evaluate whether citizens have access to the up-to-date information they need to exercise “democratic scrutiny” when it comes to EU rules for protecting the environment and combatting climate change.
“Past Ombudsman inquiries have found instances in which environmental information was made public either too late or not at all, effectively removing people’s right to participate in decision-making related to the environment,”the European Ombudsman’s office says.
“The Ombudsman has decided to prioritise scrutiny of this area as the EU - in the face of unprecedented environmental challenges - has agreed a series of laws aimed at protecting the environment and combatting climate change,” it says.
“The laws and proposals range from binding emission targets, to funding programmes for sustainable technologies, to biodiversity strategies and reduction in the use of chemical pesticides,”it says.
The EU Aarhus regulation obliges EU institutions to set up public databases for “ proactive and systemic” dissemination of certain environmental information.
As one of a series of questions drawn up as part of the consultation, participants are asked to identify what EU institutions should do to make these databases as comprehensive and user-friendly as possible?
The 11 questions relating to transparency and participation seek to “find out how easy it is for the public to obtain documents or information related to the environment”.
They are also designed to determine “how citizens could be more involved in the preparation and implementation of green policies”.
The public consultation is available in all 24 EU languages, and runs until December 15th. More details are here
