Polish Environmental Law Association
Poland

Project No. 20519: Network for a Democratic Environment: Law as a Public Participation Tool

Background

The Polish Environmental Law Association (PELA) was registered in 1987 as the first independent organization of environmental lawyers in Central and Eastern Europe. Its head office are in Wroclaw, and its membership now stands at 40. The PELA serves as a center for information, education, research and publishing in the fields of environmental law and policy. It runs its own publishing house, Environmental Law Publishers, which has published 12 books on environmental policy and legislation since 1991. Its consulting group provides logistical support for research and educational programs. The PELA's Environmental Law Information Service, established in 1992, provides free legal counseling to NGOs and the public. During its past four-year operation, the Service has established itself as an important part of the ecological movement in Poland.

The PELA and its members have also been consultants in the drafting of environmental legislation, including the State Environmental Protection Act of 1991, the Nature Conservation Act of 1991, and two pieces of pending legislation, the Environmental Protection Act and the Water Act. Recently, the PELA, in consortium with the environmental consultant EkoKonsult, succeeded in a tender for a PHARE project on the drafting of comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment legislation for Poland.

PELA members include members of parliament, high-ranking officials from state environmental authorities and members of international organizations. Their cooperating partners are based in Germany, the United States and Hungary.

Project Goals

To increase public awareness and knowledge of law among officials, citizens and NGOs
To strengthen the capacity to use formal (legal) possibilities of public participation in environmental decisionmaking
To introduce and enhance legal instruments to solve environmental disputes, thus fostering both democracy and environmental protection

Objectives

To encourage NGOs, citizens and local communities to get actively involved in formulation and implementation of environmental policy and to assist them in using legal avenues for protecting their rights
To increase the capacity of NGOs, local communities and experts through workshops on public participation
To address the demand for a wide range of resource materials, such as manuals and documentation on case studies
To improve the efficiency of PELA's Environmental Law Information Service

Amount Awarded

10,155 ECU

Implementation

The Environmental Law Information Service was conceived as the core of the entire project. All planned activities and services were thus to be carried out within its framework. Plans call for the Service to be run on a not-for-profit basis into the future as well and to provide information and advisory services only for the general public.

The activities of the Service consist of three main areas:

a telephone hotline service;
providing requested legal advice;
participation in conferences and workshops organized for or by environmental organizations.

During the project period, the telephone hotline operating five days a week received and answered 56 requests, mostly from NGOs, individuals and some local governments.

The Service prepared documentation for use in dozens of legal cases upon written requests of environmental NGOs, local governments and citizens. Organizations who requested assistance included Polish Ecological Club, Ecological Association, Greeners, Pro Natura, Green Federation, BORE, Ecological Office, Institute of Sustainable Development, Foundation of Human Rights, Foundation of Olawy and Nysy Klodzkiej and the Polish Fishing Association. Several foreign NGOs have also asked for advice, including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and Environmental Law Network International.

Since the development of highway infrastructure causes significant harm to environment and nature in Poland and since Polish environmental legislation is not yet sufficiently suited to deal with these problems, the service has mainly focused on assistance in these matters.

An interesting example was the case of localization of the Babice highway by-pass. PELA gave advice to the Green Federation of Krakow, an NGO representing local residents. After a series off administrative procedure and as a result of PELA's advice, the case was brought before the Supreme Court. In another case, PELA advised the Institute for Sustainable Development in Warsaw on an illegal administrative decision granting permission requested during an EIA procedure without complying with the legal requirements. In this case, PELA helped prepare research for a member of parliament and also challenged the decision in court.

As originally planned, a workshop was organized on the problem of public participation in authorization and localization of highway construction in Poland. The aim was to discuss difficulties and to elaborate a common position for the ecological movement concerning the highway construction program. The one-day workshop organized in May in Kolumna, during the national meeting of Polish NGOs, dealt with the following issues:

procedural problems related to the authorization of highway construction with special regard to the Act of EIA;
sustainable transport policy;
social and economic problems related to the construction of highways;
possible NGO strategies, campaigning and other ways of combining efforts of different NGOs interested in the issue;
harmful impact of highway construction on wildlife;
overview of the activity and actions of the Polish ecological movement against the program of highway construction with special regard to legal actions supported by PELA.

After the workshop, a group of environmentalists discussed ways of communication and networking among NGOs on these matters. The proceedings of the workshop were published in a book in cooperation with the NGO OTZO 3R.

The most important such event was perhaps that which focused on the Network of Ecological Offices in Poland, where the PELA prepared the legal basis for the Network's operations.

Target Groups

NGOs, individual citizens, local governments and local communities.

Relationship with NGOs, the Public and the Government

Each week, the PELA receives numerous requests for legal advice and other counseling services from individual citizens and NGOs, indicating that it is widely recognized for its key role in formulating the legislative aspects of environmental policy in Poland.

Lessons

The telephone hotline proved successful - in fact, it was necessary to operate it overtime during the project period. According to feedback, the publication on public participation in highway construction procedures, compiled in cooperation with another NGO, was an interesting and useful resource.

The court case involving the highway construction issue, although it was lost, may have a positive impact for the future - namely, the threat of legal action by NGOs will presumably be a strong incentive to take environmental issues seriously in decisionmaking procedures.

Overall Evaluation

The Service, besides providing legal advice, has gradually become a clearinghouse on legal issues and a public library containing published laws and other documents relevant to environmental problems. This makes it unique in Poland.

Sample Case

Challenging Highway Plans

This case saw the filing of legal actions against the siting of four highway sections (routes A-1, A-2, A-4, and A-12). Two NGOs, the Polish Ecological Club and the Institute for Sustainable Development, sought the assistance of the PELA's information service to prove that the authorization of the construction plans was unlawful because it did not adequately follow the procedural rules of the Highway Act of 1994. Moreover, the EIA did not meet the requirements established in the pertinent regulations, which had been approved on June 5, 1995. The PELA advised the NGOs to explore a new opportunity as set forth in a 1995 law on the Main Administrative Court (NSA Act). In the PELA's view, this law subjected the siting of highways to judicial control and gave legal standing to NGOs.

The PELA hired attorney Jerzy Rotko to handle the case and to provide ongoing legal assistance to the above-mentioned NGOs. First of all, the PELA advised them to follow the initial procedural step required by the NSA Act of 1995. To this end, the PELA prepared for them a formal request to the Central Planning Office requiring the withdrawal of the siting authorization. The authorities did not duly reply to the request, so the PELA advised the NGOs to initiate the second step by filing a formal lawsuit before the NSA, which they did. The trial was held April 1, 1996, but the court did not agree that siting must be subjected to judicial control. The PELA plans to challenge the decision and explore the new alternatives set forth by a 1996 amendment to civil procedure.

Although the case itself seems lost for the time being, there is already one positive aspect to the proceedings: The court did not question the participation of NGOs in such cases. The PELA hopes this will serve as a valuable precedent into the future.

Contact

Jerzy Jendroska
Tomasz Tatomir: Polish Environmental Law Association; ul. Komuny Paryskiej 20-28; 50-451 Wroclaw; Poland; Tel: (48-71) 446-695/72; Fax: (48-71) 446-695

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