Date 

24^th October 2019

Type of Act

(name in English / in the official language)

Decision of the Administrative High Court (Verwaltungsgerichtshof),Ra 2019/07/0021  

Enacted by 

Administrative High Court

Reference to the Constitution (art.)

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Subject area

Access to environmental information

If the act implements a source of EU Law: cite the relevant EU legal source

Comment  

At the core of the decision lies the question of whether legislative bills and opinions linked to them can be classified as “information on policies” as laid down in Directive 2003/4/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2003 on public access to environmental information. The Administrative High Court decided, that opinions on legislative bills in the evaluation phase of a bill can be classified as environmental information. Yet, the assessment has to be done case by case. The classification as environmental information depends on the impact of the bill after its realization: If it has an impact on the environmental components mentioned in the bill or if the bill intends to protect those components and the realization of the project has an impact on those components, the information has to be classified as environmental information.

Secondary sources/ doctrinal works (if any)

Available Text

https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/Dokument.wxe?Abfrage=Vwgh&Dokumentnummer=JWT_2019070021_20191024L00

Date of entry into force