O P I N I O N

  When environmentalists called on the European Environment Ministers meeting in Sofia in October 1995 to develop an international law on access to information and public participation, few would have imagined that a year and a half later, we would be in the thick of negotiations over a draft legal text. With only a year to go before the Convention is due to be signed, the pressure is on to produce a text which will be strong enough to make a meaningful difference to public participation regimes in much of the ECE region at the same time as being acceptable to the governments of the 55 countries which make up that region.

Key issues in the negotiations

• Should the definition of environmental information include data on human health, socioeconomic conditions or cultural heritage? Some countries would like to see quite a narrow definition, limited to information on the state of the environment in a scientific sense; others feel it is important to include these other elements.
• Within what time limit should a public authority provide information requested?
• Should a public authority have to provide information in the form specified by the requester?
• When should it be possible to exempt information from disclosure, and should there always be an overriding public interest test?
• Will the Convention require countries to introduce Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers, a powerful tool for getting the corporate sector to clean up its act?
• Should state-of-the-environment reports be obligatory, produced annually and required to have certain minimum contents?
• Will the Convention require certain types of environmental information to be available on the Internet? Putting information on Websites could save a lot of hassle for officials responsible for responding to information requests.
• Should anyone be entitled to participate in a decisionmaking process, or just those who can prove an interest (i.e. through an 'interest' test)?
• Should the access to justice pillar just establish the right to appeal against violations of the rights to information or participation Ñ or should it give citizens and NGOs the right to mount legal challenges against any breach of environmental law?
• Should international bodies and processes be covered, and if so, how? ECOs have argued that the internationalization of decisionmaking should not be accompanied by a loss of transparency and accountability, and that bodies such as EU institutions should follow the same rules as national governments.

Country positions

  Germany too has for most of the year blocked progressive proposals in the negotiations, though recently it has shown slightly more flexibility. Several other EU countries have also been adopting quite conservative positions, tending to be against the Convention going further than EU legislation where it exists, though their input is more mixed.

  Albania, Belgium, Poland and the Nordic countries have for the most part been quite progressive but quiet. Many of the CEE/NIS countries are also relatively quiet - regrettably so, as some of them have good examples of public participation.

  There can be little doubt that many countries are hiding behind the extreme position of Russia - so it would be a mistake to imagine that changes in the Russian position would be enough to solve the problem. Governments in all countries need to be put under pressure to play a more positive role in the negotiations.

NGO Participation

  Whereas NGOs are making a substantial impact in the negotiations, the fact remains that the process is dominated by government officials, some of whom are less than enthusiastic about making concrete, legally binding commitments to strengthen information and participation rights. The outcome may depend on the extent to which the public, including NGOs, are able to put pressure on their governments in the coming months.

Action points

• Get yourself on the (e-)mailing list to receive the ECO reports on the negotiations.
• Use the ECO reports on the session to find out what your government has been up to. Then use this information to build up pressure to strengthen your government's position.
• Ask for ECO representatives to be included in your government's delegation, in an advisory capacity, citing the fact that this has already been done in Poland, the Netherlands and Slovenia.
• Demand that your Minister and/or the government officials on the delegation meet with a representative group of the main ECOs interested in this issue - and insist on ongoing consultation throughout the negotiations. If necessary, ask how they can possibly negotiate a Convention about public participation and at the same time refuse to allow public involvement in formulating national positions in the negotiations.
• Get opposition politicians to raise questions in your parliament. Parliaments should be consulted by governments during the drafting process, not just asked to ratify the Convention after it has been signed.
• Generate publicity in your national media. Write articles for the specialist environmental media (you are welcome to translate/copy/adapt this one) and where justified, send press releases to the mainstream media focusing on your criticism of the position your government is taking.
• Keep the international ECO delegation informed of developments in your country, and submit your views on the current draft texts being proposed.