Title and Table of Contents

Public access to environmental information

Expert's Corner no. 1997/1

Prepared by Ralph E. Hallo
Stichting Natuur en Milieu (Netherlands Society for Nature and Environment)

May 1997

Table of contents
Foreword
Summary
1. Introduction
2. Access to environmental information in Europe: the legal instruments
2.1 Directive 90/313/EEC on freedom of access to environmental information
2.2 The effect of the Directive on national law
2.3 Access to environmental information: key elements and good practices
2.4 The EU Institutions
2.5 The situation in non-EU member states
2.6 Relevant international instruments
2.7 Conclusions: Toward a culture of openness
3. Developments
4. The European Environment Agency's contribution: Putting information to work
5. Final summary
ANNEXES

Annex 1:	Council Directive of 7 June 1990 on freedom of access to information on the environment (90/313/EEC)
Annex 2:	List of national measures implementing Directive 90/313/EEC
Annex 3:	UN ECE Guidelines on Access to Environmental Information and Public Participation in Environmental Decision-Making, Environment for Europe Ministerial Conference, Sofia, October 1995
Annex 4:	SNM Activities on Access to Environmental Information

Legal notice

Experts Corner Reports do not necessarily reflect the views of the EEA, or of any other EU institution: they are the opinions of the author only. However, they are intended to facilitate the broader dissemination of more recent environmental information that may provide useful inputs into the developing environmental agenda. The EEA hopes, therefore, that they will be of interest to the Community, Member States and other environmental stakeholders, whose comments on the contents it would welcome.