Introduction

Following the collapse of communism at the end of the 1980s, a new era of pan-European cooperation on environmental issues began within the framework of the Environment for Europe process. Part of the broader political agenda in this process was the goal of supporting and strengthening the democratization processes taking place in the post-communist countries - this being seen as a pre-condition for effective progress. But democracy can not mean only elections. Information, participation and access to justice were seen as essential elements of a true participatory democracy. These themes therefore became central elements in the Environment for Europe process, resulting in the endorsement of the Sofia Guidelines in 1995 and the decision to draft a new convention on public participation in environmental matters.

As the work on these concrete pan-European instruments got under way, it became clear - initially to NGOs, later to an increasing number of governments - that it was not only in the former communist countries that improvements were needed. Participatory democracy remains an elusive goal in many of the established Western democracies, where official secrecy is well-entrenched and commercial confidentiality is sacrosanct. In short, it became clear that the elaboration of these instruments could and should have truly pan-European implications.

There are of course major differences in the political and cultural backgrounds from which governments from different regions approach the task before them.

The former communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe have had to contend with a legacy of bureaucratic elitism and systematic disempowerment of the public. Decades of habitual secrecy do not dissolve overnight. In many of these countries, the lofty aspirations in their new constitutions have yet to be converted into concrete, enforceable procedures. In others, having to make a fresh start has been an advantage: beginning with a clean slate, they have leap-frogged past some of their West European counterparts in providing access to information or to decisionmaking.

Participatory democracy in the West European countries is also in a state of evolution. The EU directive on access to environmental information, which came into effect at the end of 1992 and was an important stimulus in several West European countries, is now undergoing review. While for some member states (notably the Scandinavian ones), the directive did not make a lot of difference, for others it was a turning point, prompting them to introduce much-needed changes. Yet others did not rise to the challenge and are still flagrantly in breach of its provisions. The European Union's own institutions have been the target of much criticism and have undergone a slow but steady process of reform - though much remains to be done there too.

Gaining access requires more than just knowing what you want.

One likely catalyst for reform in Europe, both East and West, will be the new UN ECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decisionmaking and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters. Even the negotiations over the draft text of the convention appear to have had an influence on discussions at national level in countries that are planning to establish or revise their laws in this area, and on the review process for the EU directive on access to environmental information. When the convention is adopted and moves into the implementation phase, this influence is likely to increase and take on a more concrete form.

The endorsement of the Sofia Guidelines was an important milestone in terms of moving public participation issues up the pan-European agenda. Unfortunately, only in a few countries have active steps been taken to promote the guidelines at national level and in those cases, mainly as a result of NGO initiatives. The fact that a legally binding convention on the same subject was being negotiated over the past couple of years may have distracted the attention of both governments and NGOs from the implementation of the guidelines. In the longer term, the main importance of the guidelines may prove to have been that they were a necessary step towards the development of the convention.

Purpose of the Study

Doors to Democracy takes a look at how public participation works - in law and in practice - in a large selection of the European countries in different sub-regions. As an additional perspective, a report on the US has been prepared as well. Doors to Democracy is not, and does not claim to be, a fully comprehensive study. Not all countries are covered, and for those that are covered, it was not always possible to get all the information that was needed. Nonetheless, certain important conclusions may be drawn from it, and that is what this overview attempts to do.

The study involved an examination of public participation legislation and practice in a selection of European countries: five from the Newly Independent States (NIS), 15 from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and 11 from Western Europe. The three partner organizations involved in the study were the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe, EcoPravo-Lviv and the European Environmental Bureau, taking responsibility for, respectively, the CEE, NIS and Western regions. A network of national correspondents was established to draw up country reports. To ensure a common approach, a questionnaire was developed at an international workshop held in September 1997, which formed the basis for gathering the information. This was further refined at a second workshop held in February 1998.

As a result of the cooperative project, a series of four publications has been prepared including country reports and regional overviews on the CEE, NIS and West European regions, as well as a Pan-European assessment. The present volume relies to a great extent on the findings of the regional overviews and country reports.

To the extent feasible, draft reports were submitted to governments for comments before the text was finalized, though the text remains the responsibility of the project partners.

The country reports were made available to the UN ECE for use in its review of the Sofia Guidelines on Access to Environmental Information and Public Participation in Environmental Decisionmaking.

The project was made financially possible through the generous sponsorship of the governments of Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden and the European Commission, to whom we are grateful.

We would also like to thank Michael Lindsay and Daniel McAdams for English language proofing and copy editing this report; Sylvia Magyar for coordinating desktop publishing and printing with the help of Laszlo Falvay and Craig Snelgrove; and Jennifer Braswell for assisting in developing the tables.

REC * PUBLICATIONS * DOORS TO DEMOCRACY - EUROPE * INTRODUCTION