THE ROLE OF PUBLIC AUTHORITIES IN THE PERFORMANCE BY THE PUBLIC OF THE RIGHT TO ACCESS ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION
THE ROLE OF PUBLIC AUTHORITIES IN THE PERFORMANCE BY THE PUBLIC OF THE RIGHT TO ACCESS ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION

Summary/Abstract: Environmental protection represents one of the fundamental policies of the European Union. Since 1972, the European Council in Paris adopted a communitarian environmental policy to support the economic expansion. The Single European Act (1978), the Maastricht Treaty (1993), the Amsterdam Treaty (1999) and the Lisbon Treaty (2009) show on the one hand that the environment has become an official area of common policy, but also represents the legal foundation for the engagement of the Member States towards the environmental protection.Despite economic and technological progress, there can be no. question of an increase in the quality of life in the absence of environmental policies. Against this background, under the auspices of the Economic Commission for Europe of the United Nations (UNECE) was adopted the Aarhus Convention in 1998. This Convention, to which the European Union and all its Member States are part, guarantees three categories of rights for the public:1. The right of citizens to participate in environmental decision-making;2. The right to access information regarding the environment held by the public authorities;3. The right to access justice for the violation of the above-mentioned two rights.This article aims to analyze in relation to the provisions of the Aarhus Convention, the way in which the Romanian legislator understood to regulate the role of public authorities regarding the exercise by the public of the right of access to environmental information.

• Details
• Contents