Aarhus workshop on access to justice at EU level

Third Aarhus workshop on “How can access to justice be improved at EU level?”

Around 30 people interested in Aarhus from environmental associations, the legal community and specialized lawyers took part in the third Aarhus workshop on 17 November 2020. Sebastian Bechtel, environmental democracy lawyer at ClientEarth Brussels, kicked off the workshop with two informative presentations on the following challenging questions: “What has gone wrong with access to justice at EU level so far?” and “Will the proposed amendment to the Aarhus Regulation remedy the situation?” In two panel discussions with Aarhus experts from Germany, Portugal and Slovenia, the EU countries currently holding the Trio Presidency of the Council of the European Union until the end of 2021, the obstacles to access to justice were identified and concrete areas for improvement were outlined. Dr. Raphael Weyland, Head of the Brussels office of Naturschutzbund Deutschland (NABU), Dr. Catarina Grilo, Director of Nature Conservation and Policy at ANP in cooperation with WWF Portugal, and Senka Šifkovi Vrbica, employee at PIC Slovenia, shared their practical experiences on access to European and national courts. Dr. Maria Alexandra de Sousa Aragão, Professor at the University of Coimbra, Dr. Vasilka Sancin, Professor at the University of Ljubljana and Director of the Centre for International and Economic Law, and Sebastian Bechtel discussed with the participants how access to justice can be further strengthened at EU level. A joint position paper was drawn up during the third Aarhus workshop. The “German Portuguese Slovenian Civil Society Declaration on Access to Justice for Citizens & NGOs at European Union Level” can be found here (will be submitted later). If you have any questions, please contact: kathleen.pauleweit@ufu.de The workshop discussion is part of the project “European Implementation of the Aarhus Convention in the Digital Age (EU-AarKo)” of the Independent Institute for Environmental Issues (UfU e.V.). This project is funded by the Federal Environment Agency and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety as part of the funding for associations. Further information on this project and its background can be found here.