{"id":11240,"date":"2025-05-12T10:06:56","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T07:06:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/cceel\/?page_id=11240"},"modified":"2025-05-16T15:51:18","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T12:51:18","slug":"the-eu-and-the-aarhus-convention-taking-stock-of-the-unions-progress-towards-environmental-democracy","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/cceel\/the-eu-and-the-aarhus-convention-taking-stock-of-the-unions-progress-towards-environmental-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"The EU and the Aarhus Convention \u2013 Taking Stock of the Union\u2019s Progress Towards Environmental Democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Date:&nbsp;<strong>24 September 2025<\/strong>, Time:&nbsp;<strong>10:00-17:30<\/strong>, Location:&nbsp;<strong>Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels &amp; Online<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Aarhus Convention continues to be widely celebrated as a beacon of environmental democracy and has played a considerable role in advancing the notion of procedural environmental rights in the European Union and beyond. Amidst mounting environmental crises and with the 2025 Meeting of the Parties around the corner, this workshop will be an opportunity to reflect on the major issues facing the Convention today and the European Union\u2019s position within it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Has the EU done enough to ensure sufficient avenues to challenge environmental law violations? How can planning of the ecological transition be accelerated, while ensuring public participation in and acceptability of new projects? Is the European Commission living up to the transparency requirements and aspirations of the Convention? How can the Convention surmount challenges arising from the high workload of its Compliance Committee and the slow implementation of the Committee\u2019s findings? What have been the achievements and challenges of the recently established Rapid Response Mechanism for environmental defenders?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this workshop, we will bring together academics, policymakers and stakeholders to explore these important questions concerning the ongoing trajectory of the Convention under its three pillars of access to information, public participation and access to justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Registration<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/forms\/d\/e\/1FAIpQLScaHp6aIj6PYNcHR6iFGbqPt3wyj-QyyqyKrJVI6fcqfvoowA\/viewform\">Follow this link.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Draft Programme<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>09:30 \u2013 10:00<\/strong>&nbsp;| Registration &amp; Coffee<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>10:00 \u2013 10:30<\/strong>&nbsp;| Opening &amp; Keynote<br>\u2013 Keynote Speaker: Professor \u00c1ine Ryall, University College Cork and<br>Chair of the UN ECE Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>10:30 \u2013 11:45<\/strong>&nbsp;| Session 1: Access to Justice<br><em>Chair: Prof. Annalisa Savaresi, University of Eastern Finland<\/em><br>\u2013 Prof. Mariolina Eliantonio, University of Maastricht<br>\u2013 Sebastian Bechtel, ClientEarth<br>\u2013 Pielpa Ollikainen &amp; Sofia Heikkonen, University of Helsinki<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>11:45 \u2013 13:00<\/strong>&nbsp;| Session 2: Public Participation<br><em>Chair: Nicola Sharman, University of Eastern Finland<\/em><br>\u2013 Prof. Chiara Armeni, Universit\u00e9 Libre de Bruxelles<br>\u2013 Frederik Hafen, European Environmental Bureau<br>\u2013 Rosita Hickey, European Ombudsman<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>13:00 \u2013 14:00&nbsp;<\/strong>| Lunch<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>14:00 \u2013 15:15 <\/strong>| Session 3: Access to Information<br><em>Chair: TBC<\/em><br>\u2013 Prof. Elisa Morgera, University of Strathclyde and UN Special<br>Rapporteur on Human Rights and Climate Change<br>\u2013 Prof. P\u00e4ivi Leino-Sandberg, University of Helsinki<br>Fred Logue, FP Logue LLP, Ireland<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>15:15 \u2013 15:45<\/strong>&nbsp;| Coffee Break<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>15:45 \u2013 17:00 <\/strong>| Session 4: Outlook<br><em>Chair: Anne Friel, ClientEarth<\/em><br>\u2013 Emily Barritt, Dauphine Universit\u00e9 Paris, PSL<br>\u2013 Claudia Fusco, Director, DG ENV.E, European Commission<br>\u2013 Michel Forst, UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders under the Aarhus Convention TBC<br>\u2013 TBC<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>17:00 \u2013 17:30<\/strong>&nbsp;| Closing Remarks<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"links-block\">\n\n    \n    <ul class=\"link-list\">\n            <\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Date:&nbsp;24 September 2025, Time:&nbsp;10:00-17:30, Location:&nbsp;Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels &amp; Online The Aarhus Convention continues to be widely celebrated as a beacon of environmental democracy and has played a considerable role in advancing the notion of procedural environmental rights in the European Union and beyond. Amidst mounting environmental crises and with the 2025 Meeting of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1295,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-11240","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The EU and the Aarhus Convention \u2013 Taking Stock of the Union\u2019s Progress Towards Environmental Democracy - The Center for Climate Change, Energy and Environmental Law<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/cceel\/the-eu-and-the-aarhus-convention-taking-stock-of-the-unions-progress-towards-environmental-democracy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The EU and the Aarhus Convention \u2013 Taking Stock of the Union\u2019s Progress Towards Environmental Democracy - The Center for Climate Change, Energy and Environmental Law\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Date:&nbsp;24 September 2025, Time:&nbsp;10:00-17:30, Location:&nbsp;Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels &amp; Online The Aarhus Convention continues to be widely celebrated as a beacon of environmental democracy and has played a considerable role in advancing the notion of procedural environmental rights in the European Union and beyond. Amidst mounting environmental crises and with the 2025 Meeting of the [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/cceel\/the-eu-and-the-aarhus-convention-taking-stock-of-the-unions-progress-towards-environmental-democracy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Center for Climate Change, Energy and Environmental Law\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-16T12:51:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/cceel\/the-eu-and-the-aarhus-convention-taking-stock-of-the-unions-progress-towards-environmental-democracy\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/cceel\/the-eu-and-the-aarhus-convention-taking-stock-of-the-unions-progress-towards-environmental-democracy\/\",\"name\":\"The EU and the Aarhus Convention \u2013 Taking Stock of the Union\u2019s Progress Towards Environmental Democracy - The Center for Climate Change, Energy and Environmental Law\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/cceel\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-12T07:06:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-16T12:51:18+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/cceel\/the-eu-and-the-aarhus-convention-taking-stock-of-the-unions-progress-towards-environmental-democracy\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/cceel\/the-eu-and-the-aarhus-convention-taking-stock-of-the-unions-progress-towards-environmental-democracy\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/cceel\/the-eu-and-the-aarhus-convention-taking-stock-of-the-unions-progress-towards-environmental-democracy\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/cceel\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The EU and the Aarhus Convention \u2013 Taking Stock of the Union\u2019s Progress Towards Environmental Democracy\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/cceel\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/cceel\/\",\"name\":\"The Center for Climate Change, Energy and Environmental Law\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/cceel\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The EU and the Aarhus Convention \u2013 Taking Stock of the Union\u2019s Progress Towards Environmental Democracy - The Center for Climate Change, Energy and Environmental Law","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/cceel\/the-eu-and-the-aarhus-convention-taking-stock-of-the-unions-progress-towards-environmental-democracy\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The EU and the Aarhus Convention \u2013 Taking Stock of the Union\u2019s Progress Towards Environmental Democracy - The Center for Climate Change, Energy and Environmental Law","og_description":"Date:&nbsp;24 September 2025, Time:&nbsp;10:00-17:30, Location:&nbsp;Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels &amp; Online The Aarhus Convention continues to be widely celebrated as a beacon of environmental democracy and has played a considerable role in advancing the notion of procedural environmental rights in the European Union and beyond. 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