REC: The Bulletin 8/3: REC Briefs

REC Briefs

In advance of the third Ministerial Conference of Environment and Health Ministers, to be held in London next June, 1999, local authorities from the region and the REC have prepared a new report designed to stimulate debate. Entitled Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environment and Health Matters, the report includes detailed surveys of legislation and practice in CEE, the NIS and Western Europe and a European overview. Current international legal instruments dealing with access to information, public participation and justice in environment and health matters are evaluated. The report also assesses best practices in national and local environmental health action programmes. Contact: Magda Toth Nagy.

REC legal specialist Stephen Stec has published an extensive article on access to information and public participation in environmental decision-making in the Commonwealth of Independent States in the latest issue of the Review of Central and East European Law (Volume 23, No. 5/6). The article covers Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, the Russian Federation and Ukraine. Stec concludes that while serious problems persist in the legislative drafting of these countries concerning public participation, legal developments and practices have seen substantial evolution and progress in the last decade. Contact: Stephen Stec or IEERLS@Law.LeidenUniv.nl.

For the first time ever, high-level Hungarian ministry officials attended the REC's regular ambassadors' briefing, held this October at the Hungarian Ministry of Environment. Hungarian Environment Minister Pal Pepo, Ministry of Foreign Affairs State Secretary Peter Gottfried and foreign ambassadors stationed in Budapest heard details of REC's successes during the recent conference for Europe's environment ministers held last June in Denmark and REC's increased mandate in the Environment for Europe process. Minister Pepo praised the work of the REC thus far in fostering international cooperation in regional environmental issues.