Outcome of the 30th meeting of the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee
Geneva, 21 December 2010 --
The 30th meeting of the Compliance Committee of the UNECE Aarhus Convention took place in Geneva from 14 to 17 December 2010. The main outcomes of the meeting were as follows:
- The Committee discussed the substance of communication ACCC/C/2010/48 alleging non-compliance by Austria with the provisions of the Convention on access to justice in general. Representatives of both the Party concerned and the communicant participated in the formal discussions. The communicant alleged that the Party concerned fails to comply with the Convention in particular with respect to the limitations of the laws for standing of non-governmental organizations and injunctive relief. The Party concerned denied the allegations of the communication. The Committee will proceed to prepare draft findings and, where appropriate, recommendations.
- After having taken into account the comments submitted by the parties, the Committee proceeded to finalize its findings with respect to two communications: communication ACCC/C/2009/41 concerning Slovakia, in connection with public participation in decision-making on the completion of the Mochovce nuclear power plant and communication ACCC/C/2009/43 concerning Armenia in connection with public participation related to decision-making on the long-term exploitation of copper and molybdenum deposits in Teghut, in the Lori region. The Committee requested the secretariat to send the finalized findings to the parties.
- The Committee continued its deliberations in closed session on three communications, which had been formally discussed with the parties at the Committee’s twenty-fifth, twenty-seventh and twenty-ninth meetings: communication ACCC/C/2008/32 concerning the European Union in connection with access by the members of the public to review procedures; communication ACCC/C/2009/38 concerning the United Kingdom, in connection with access to information and public participation regarding the construction of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route bypass; and communication ACCC/C/2009/44 concerning Belarus in connection with the construction of a nuclear power plant in the country. The Committee completed its work on the preparation of the draft findings for communication ACCC/C/2009/38 (United Kingdom). It requested the secretariat to send the draft to the Parties concerned and the communicants for comment in accordance with the procedure set out in paragraph 34 of the annex to decision I/7. The Committee would take into account any comments when finalizing the findings at its thirtieth meeting.
- The Committee determined two new communications to be admissible on a preliminary basis and deferred its decision on one communication
- At this meeting, the Committee also reviewed follow-up on specific cases of non-compliance after the three session of the Meeting of the Parties; and prepared its draft report to be submitted to the fourth session of the Meeting of the Parties in June 2011.
Ref: ECE/ENV/10/P44