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France faces EU court blow over information
ENDS Environment Daily
14th January 2003
France is likely to be condemned in the European court of justice, following an opinion delivered today that supports the European Commission in a case brought against France over faulty compliance with the 1990 EU directive on access to environmental information (ED 06/03/00).
Advocate-general Christine Stix-Hackl rejected the French government's position that pre-existing national legislation allowing access to "administrative documents" was sufficient to provide citizens "clear and precise" access to all environmental information, as required under the directive.
The directive's provisions are being superseded by new EU rules on access to information finalised in December (ED 19/12/02).
* In a separate court opinion today, advocate-general Jean Mischo supported the Commission in another case against France regarding alleged failure to fully transpose a 1998 EU directive on the marketing of biocides (ED 25/02/02).
Follow-up: European court of justice, tel: +352 43031, and opinions in cases (see page 2 of pdf ~ C-233/00) and C-114/02.
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