Access to Justice: Environmental Non-Governmental Organisations According to the Aarhus Regulation

Abstract

Article 10 of the Aarhus Regulation provides an opportunity for environmental non-governmental organisations (hereafter ENGOs) to request an internal review to an EU institution or body that has adopted an administrative act under environmental law, or should have done so in the case of an alleged administrative omission. The criteria that have to be met for an ENGO to be entitled to make this request are defined in Article 11 of the Regulation. Together, these criteria can be regarded as the criteria which define an ENGO at the European Union level. The aim of this article is to investigate whether these criteria are sufficiently clear and whether they contribute to the objective of providing wide access for ENGOs to the internal review procedure. In order to understand the aim the EU institutions had in mind when they decided on the standing criteria, this article examines how these criteria were selected by analysing the legislative documents that resulted in the adoption of the Aarhus Regulation. It helps to identify whether the Commission is currently interpreting these criteria in line with the spirit with which they have been defined. Furthermore, internal review requests which provide insights into the scope of the Article 11 criteria have been selected in order to understand how the European Commission currently interprets the standing criteria. Finally, a conclusion is provided on the questions raised, together with recommendations for improvement and further research.