Environmental Democracy: An Assessment of Access to Information, Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters in Selected European Countries

This report evaluates the status of access rights implementation in selected countriesof Europe using the findings of The Access Initiative. At the time of its publication in 2006, civil society coalitions had conducted TAI assessments in eight European countries: Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal and Ukraine. In addition, pilot TAI case studies specific to access in the water management sector were conducted in Estonia and Ireland. The report documents how legal commitments are not necessarily realized in practice. Furthermore, implementation is uneven across the access rights, information rights being the easiest and justice rights being the most difficult to enforce.