To mark the 10th anniversary of the Aarhus Convention and reflect on its interaction with EU environmental law, the Centre for Environmental Law of the University of Amsterdam organized an international conference in Amsterdam on 25 June 2008. The conference, entitled "The Aarhus Convention at Ten: Interactions and Tensions between Conventional International Law and EU Environmental Law", focused on the relationship between the provisions of the Convention and the development of EU environmental law. It addressed synergies and conflicts across the three ‘pillars' of the Aarhus Convention and examined the broader legal and institutional implications of these interactions for the development of both EU law and international environmental law. Presentations covered inter alia participatory rights under the GMO decision-making, civic group participation in EU environmental impact assessments, availability of judicial review at EU level, compliance and Aarhus in the context of the EU Neighbourhood Policy. The speakers included leading experts and practitioners from several European universities, governments and European institutions, civil society organizations from 15 countries, as well as the Convention's Secretariat and members of the Compliance Committee. With an attached report on the conference appearing in ELNI review (2/2008). Conference proceedings will be published in 2009.
