Workshop "What is the state of digital public participation and EIA portals in EU Member States?"

How far advanced are different EU Member States in terms of digital participation? How well can the public participate through EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) web portals? What do modern EIA portals need to ensure broad participation?

These questions will be discussed in our workshop with expert knowledge from Slovenia, Spain, Hungary, Estonia and Germany. The results of country reports on the evaluation of their EIA portals and the current possibilities of digital public participation will be presented and common positions will be discussed. The workshop is designed to be interactive. We encourage you to contribute good practice examples and positions on the use of digital participation tools!

The workshop is part of the Aarhus-Strong project, aiming to strengthen digital participation rights in environmental protection in EU Member States. The results of the workshop will be used to develop an innovative participation guide for environmental authorities in the EU.

Programme

10:00 am	Opening and Welcome Maike Reichert, Independent Institute for Environmental Issues (UfU)
PART I
10:10 – 11:00 am	Panel to present the results of country reports from Slovenia, Spain, Hungary, Estonia and Germany –         Aljoša Petek, Legal-Informational Centre for NGOs (Slovenia) –         Marta Vicioso, International Institute for Law and the Environment (Spain) –         Dr. Csaba Kiss, Environmental Management and Law Association (Hungary) –         Country report prepared by Kärt Varmaari, Estonian Environmental Law Center (Estonia) –         Maike Reichert, Independent Institute for Environmental Issues (Germany)
11:00 – 11:30 am	Compilation of good practice of projects and processes with digital public participation by participants
11:30 – 11.40 am	break
PART II
11:40 – 12:00 am	Insights from the Aarhus Convention concerning digital public participation Summer Kern, Justice and Environment/  NGO Observer to the Aarhus Convention Bureau
12:00 – 12:30 pm	Discussion of the results of the workshop and the way forward