The environmental organisation ANSE has filed an appeal against the resolution of the General Directorate of Transport, Coasts and Ports of the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia that denies it standing in the sanctions proceedings for the execution of works without authorization in Puertomayor (La Manga-Mar Menor). Among other justifications, the autonomous community argues that to consider ANSE as interested in this sanctioning procedure, it must justify the existence of a collective legitimate interest. In the present case, ANSE does not establish what the collective legitimate interest derived from the possible consequences of the sanction that may be imposed is. The association considers that the autonomous community has infringed with this refusal the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, Law 27/2006 and Directives 2003/4/EC and 2003/35/EC. The European Community itself has recognized in the Environmental Protection Directive that non-application of environmental law is too often caused by the fact that the procedural capacity to appeal is limited to those directly affected by the infringement. Hence, one way of improving implementation is to ensure that environmental protection associations have access to administrative or judicial environmental procedures. The practical experience gained so far has shown that it has served to strengthen the application of environmental law.
