Full project descriptionies. Project Background The negotiation and signature of the UNECE Convention on Access to Environmental information, Public Participation in Environmental Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (the Aarhus Convention) at the Aarhus Ministerial Conference in 1998 June has been a turning point for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in the process of transition. With the Aarhus Convention, a unique international legal instrument was born which can play an important role in harmonising legislation and practice in the field of access to environmental information, public participation and justice in a comprehensive way in the UNECE region, and it can also have a positive influence on the southern part of Central and Eastern Europe. A total of 39 countries and the European Union had signed the convention as of December 21, 1998. Among them, 12 Central and Eastern European and most of the NIS countries that have committed themselves to beginning work on the ratification and early implementation of the convention. Three years on, at the moment the convention entered into force, many of the CEE and NIS countries had finalised the process of national ratification, thus making the international agreement a part of their own legislation. In contrast to the general approach taken by many Western and some Central European countries, the legal systems of others in CEE and NIS allow for ratification in absence of detailed implementing legislation. An international agreement becomes an integral part of the national legal framework but all the stakeholders in such countries often experience difficulties in going about practical implementation of the framework provisions. While being quite prescriptive in their principles, public participation provisions of Article 6 of the convention are rather flexible in leaving the national governments the breathing space to regulate the details of implementing procedures (such as processes of notification, organisation of public hearings, making the information available, taking due account of the public comments, etc). Where the legislators have dealt extensively with regulations and guidelines to assist officials in implementing such a flexible framework, the process of implementation usually proceeds smoothly. However, where the text of the convention has been adopted as a whole and procedural regulations and guidance are missing, the officials are often left with an uneasy choice of relying entirely on their intuition. As has happened so many times with decisions on providing the public access to particular information, an official in such a position tends to take a safer and more conservative approach. Quite often he or she simply does not know how to proceed in order to achieve the most efficient results. There are, however, many countries (e.g. Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Italy, Poland, and several others) where experience with public involvement in the decision-making process has been well developed over the years. Some of these base their procedures on traditional or practical approaches, while others developed them within the last decade or so of trying to build transparency into their principles of governance. The officials — both on national and local levels — in these countries have significant experience in developing transparent decision-making processes and practical details of ensuring effective public participation. Active public involvement in the development of such the procedures is often a key to success. The NGOs and community organisers can help to identify the most efficient methods and approaches to greater involvement of the public and building more constructive dialogue within decision-making processes. Whatever procedures and methods are used in regulating public participation, their effectiveness can only be tested through application. Not only will such practical testing of the process allow them to be assessed and modified to achieve optimal results in future applications, but they also create precedents and build capacities of both the community and the decision makers. Objectives The objectives of the project are: to promote the implementation of Article 6 of the Aarhus Convention in selected countries of CEE and NIS; to build capacity and improve efficiency and quality of government environmental decision making by facilitating the development of implementing provisions and regulations at the national and local levels; to enable different stakeholders to gain practice and share experience in the implementation of the Art. 6 provisions; and to disseminate and promote the use of best practices of public participation in order to show the benefits of well-functioning democratic mechanisms. Activities and methods of work (1) Trainings On average, three trainings will be organised in each country. The trainings will be developed in cooperation with national authorities, NGOs and experts, and the exact topics will address specific needs identified by in-country stakeholders. Although, the ultimate issues to be addressed in the trainings will be decided at the project initiation stage only, we foresee that specific issues of public participation in decision-making processes to be addressed might include: processes and criteria for identifying the public concerned; most effective outreach in notification processes; continuous facilitation of public participation throughout the decision-making process; organisation of public hearings; process and criteria for taking comments into account; and communicating the reasoned decisions to the stakeholders involved. In light of the current Aarhus initiative on GMOs with regard to Article 6 paragraph 11, some of the training and assistance activities might focus on its implementation in the countries where the decision-making process on genetically modified organisms has been or is being developed. Target groups The trainings will involve mainly decision makers on local and, where applicable, national levels. To ensure proper reflection of civil society’s position with regard to the development of the public participation process, NGOs and, whenever possible, businesses will also be involved into the programme. Training approach The trainings will take a practical application approach and focus on the details of the different processes under Article 6 of the convention. Decision makers from the countries with substantial public participation experience will be invited to share their practical experiences and provide models and suggestions within the training programme. The trainings will be done on the national level and in the national language wherever possible. However, where the topics might be similar for several countries and specifics of legal systems are not prohibiting it, combined trainings might be organised for stakeholders from several countries. Three trainings per country on average are foreseen unless combinations such as mentioned above prove to be feasible. Each training will involve 20 to 30 participants. (2) Experience sharing Experts with substantial practical experience in organising public participation processes in other countries will be involved in the process to provide decision makers and other stakeholders with practical knowledge and suggestions. The experts will come both from governmental and non-governmental sectors and will have extensive experience with particular procedures of public involvement and community organising. These will be local and/or national level decision makers with “field” experience as well as NGOs that can share experience in community organising and ensuring constructive dialogue with the authorities and applicants within the decision-making process. The experts and counterparts will be involved both in the training programmes as in providing ongoing consultation throughout the project. (3) Pilot projects In addition to trainings and experience sharing, direct assistance in the form of pilot project grants will be provided to non-governmental or community organisations. The projects will be selected in consultation with the local or national level authorities, communities concerned and the NGOs. The project will focus on development and implementation of public participation strategy and community organising to ensure public participation in the identified decision making on specific activities. Projects will be encouraged to use the experience received in the trainings and through technical assistance and experience sharing. On average one pilot project per country is expected to be funded. Projects related to ensuring public participation in decision making on activities with transboundary environmental impact will be encouraged, especially among the countries involved in the project. Implementing agencies The project will be coordinated and implemented by the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC). The REC has contributed to the development of participatory democracy and civil society in the CEE region through its Public Participation Programme since 1993. The REC experts participated in the drafting of the Aarhus Convention and have been involved in several different projects to assist the ratification and early implementation of the convention, which provide a good background for the assessment of legislative needs stemming from the implementation of the Aarhus Convention. While preparing an analysis of the legislative framework and practices on access to information, public participation and access to justice in CEE, NIS and Western Europe (Doors to Democracy, REC, 1998) for the Aarhus Ministerial Conference in 1998 and working on the Guide to Implementation of the Aarhus Convention, the REC experts have obtained a well-based overview of legislative and regulative frameworks and implementation practices on public participation in these regions. Over the last five year the REC has also developed, organised and/or carried out numerous trainings on implementation of the Aarhus Convention and national legislation in both the CEE and NIS regions. In addition to REC-CEE experts, the new regional environmental centres (New RECs) that have recently started operating in some NIS countries will be actively involved in project implementation. Their assistance will especially be required in liaising with the national and local authorities and NGOs, identifying country priority issues in public participation, developing and organising national trainings as well as selection and monitoring of the pilot projects. The New REC offices in the Caucasus, Moldova and Ukraine will be involved.

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