"Environmental Democracy" is the title of a new report, published in fall 2006, assessing the status of the three "access rights" - to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters - in eight selected European countries. These access rights were recognized internationally in 1992 by the 178 governments that signed the Rio Declaration and in 1998 by the Aarhus Convention.

The report evaluates the status of access rights implementation in Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal and Ukraine. The assessment is based on the findings of The Access Initiative, established to develop a methodology that civil society can use to evaluate national government progress in implementing the access rights.

The main outcomes of the report can be summarised as follows:
 Legal frameworks strongly support meaningful implementation of access rights in almost all the assessed countries. However, legal commitments are not necessarily realized in practice and implementation is uneven across the access rights.
 Access to information is generally satisfactory in practice. However, it often relies on the Internet, leaving those not having access to the web without relevant environmental information.
 Participation in decision-making exists, but cannot guarantee that the public is heard.
 Access to justice is gradually opening up for environmental matters, but remains the most difficult right to enforce.
 Capacity building on the regulatory framework and implementation procedures is severely needed but constantly struggles with resource shortage.

The report also contains useful information on the legal standing for NGOs in the selected countries, and case studies related to various environmental issues, such as air and water quality.

For more information, please visit the Access Initiative website.