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Ad hoc Committee on E-Democracy of the Council of Europe (CAHDE) Strasbourg, 8-9 October 2007

Electronic access to environmental information – an important fundament for e-democracy and environmental protection. Ad hoc Committee on E-Democracy of the Council of Europe (CAHDE) Strasbourg, 8-9 October 2007 Michael Nagy Rudolf Legat J. Hrebicek

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Ad hoc Committee on E-Democracy of the Council of Europe (CAHDE) Strasbourg, 8-9 October 2007

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  1. Electronic access to environmental information – an important fundament for e-democracy and environmental protection Ad hoc Committee on E-Democracy of the Council of Europe (CAHDE) Strasbourg, 8-9 October 2007 Michael Nagy Rudolf Legat J. Hrebicek (Additional material used from T. Pick, S. Jensen, F. Kruse,T. Vögele, H.-J. Krammer)

  2. E-Environment: a fundament for E-Democracy • E-Democracy strives to simplify processes between public institutions, legislative, citizen, companies, … • E-Democracy refers to electronic information, communication and transactions • Important goals of E-Democracy are • simplification of bureaucracy • more transparent decision making and law implementation • to support public participation in many ways • E-Environment: • is based on existing International Conventions and EU Directives • guarantee citizen standardized access to environmental information and public participation

  3. E-Environment supports the protection of the environment • Control effect: Each individual can control the compliance with environmental law and point out deficits • Participation effect: Increase of transparency and better public participation. • Education effect (awareness effect): Distribution of knowledge regarding the state of the environment; better acceptance of measures • Prevention effect: Potential polluters should be discouraged because of the risk of publication of these activities • Standardization effect: Pan-European comparable principles regarding access to environmental information. Prevention of competitive distortion.

  4. SEIS, national environmental portals,…. INSPIRE Directive, 2007 Directive on Public Participation, 2003 Directive on Reuse of Public Sector Information, 2003 Directive on Public Access to Environmental Information, 2003 Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, 1998 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, 1992 Declaration of the UN Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, 1972 Towards sharing environmental information... Time

  5. The 3 Pillars of the Aarhus Convention Aarhus Convention Public participation Access to justice Access to environmental information

  6. The Aarhus-Convention • FULL NAME: UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making, and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (done at Aarhus, Denmark, on 25 June 1998) • ISSUES: Public right to know, right to participate in environmental decision-making, right to justice in environmental matters. It links environment right and human rights. • GOALS: Enhancing government accountability, transparency, and responsiveness. Assisting civil society participation & helping to create participatory democracy for sustainable development in Europe. • 3 Pillars: • Public Access to Environmental Information • Public Participation • Access to Justice (in environmental matters)

  7. 2007/2/EC 2003/98/EC 2003/35/EC 2003/4/EC Reuse of Public Sector Information EU Implementation INSPIRE: Infrastructure for Spatial Information Providing for Public Participation Public Access to Env. Information

  8. Directive 2003/4/EC (Public Access to Environmental Information) • Right of Access to Environmental Information (held by or for public authorities) • All Environmental Information held for or by Public Authorities • Upon request by ANYBODY, ANYWHERE, without having to state an interest, ASAP • In the requested format (unless already available in other format) • Progressive Dissemination to the Public • Requires MSs to ensure the availability and dissemination of this information • Using Computer Telecommunication and/or electronic technology • Officials support public in seeking access • Officials make practical arrangements for access • Supply lists of public authorities • Supply lists or registers of environmental information held by PA

  9. Environmental Information is any Information about … Elements Water Soil Air Land Biodiversity … Factors Substances Energy Noise Radiation Emissions Waste … Measures Policies Legislation Plans Programmes Agreements … Effects Health Food Chain Conditions of Human Life Cultural Sites Built Structures …

  10. Directive 2007/2/EC (INSPIRE Directive) • Refers to spatial information (i.e. GIS data) as a subset of environmental information • Addressed to public authorities, businesses and only in third priority to the general public • EU MSs must ensure the establishment of infrastructure for spatial information: • Metadata • Spatial data sets and data services • Network services and technologies • Agreements on sharing, access and use of data • Coordination and monitoring mechanisms, processes and procedures to facilitate the technical implementation

  11. Spatial data themes addressed through INSPIRE

  12. Access To Informa-tion Access to Justice Public Participation INSPIRE 2003/4/EC Aarhus Thematic Space

  13. Different Target Groups Administration Citizens Business EEID EnvironmentalAdministration PSI INSPIRE

  14. 2003/4/EC and INSPIRE Challenges • Different Strategies in Member States • Structural Heterogeneity • Semantic Heterogeneity • No Harmonization / Standardization Activities (e.g. no procedures, schemes, Ontologies etc.) • No Tools (Taxonomy, Ontology, Services) • No Implementation Guidance available • No Funding ? • No Interoperability!  No Information (exchange)

  15. Technical implementation – Environmental Portals • European level: SEIS (Shared Environmental Information System) • Regional: e.g. Information Infrastructure for the North and Baltic Sea (NOKIS); http:// nokis.baw.de • National (examples): • DE: PortalU – http://www.portalu.de • CZ: Geoportal – http://geoportal.cenia.cz • AT: Koordinierungsstelle für Umweltinformation – http://www.umweltbundesamt.at/umweltinformation/koordinierungsstelle • CH: Metainformationsystem Envirocat – http://www.envirocat.ch • Sub-national: • Umweltportal Hessen • Umweltobjektkatalog Bayern • and many others

  16. SEIS – Shared Environmental Information System • Development of an Environmental Information Systems in Europe • improved usage of environmental data • „Streamlining and harmonisation of monitoring and reporting obligations“ • INSPIRE as a core element • Parties involved: „Group of 4“ (Go4) • DG ENV • EEA • Eurostat • JRC • End of 2007: „SEIS Comission Communication“ expected: • political framework • links with INSPIRE and streamlining of reporting and monitoring provisions • suggest policy options to go from ‚Concept to Reality‘

  17. SEIS Principles • Information should be managed as close as possible to its source • Information is provided once and shared with others for many purposes • Data and information should be readilyaccessible to end-users to enable them to access it timely • Information should be made available to the public after due consideration of the appropriate level of aggregation, given possible confidentiality constraints, and at national level in the national language(s)

  18. Building a distributed information system - SEIS Example Water Information System for Europe EEA information services National Data centres Sub-national Data Centres Internet (Inspire) Internet (Geonetwork Inspire) User GMES Emissions data International Conventions Data from other Directives Geo- Ref.

  19. Near Real Time Ozone Monitoring http://www.eea.europa.eu./maps/ozone

  20. DE: One-Stop-Shop example: Umweltportal Deutschland • Central access to environmental information • On all levels of administration (national, provincial,municipal) • Standardized access to environmental information all over Germany • Evidence of env. information regarding UIG (EEID) • Support at: • active dissemination of env. information • evidence of existing env. data (via metadata) • Common contribution of the env. authorities to INSPIRE • spatial metadata • connected to geodata-services • http://www.portalu.de/ • In operation since: May 29, 2006

  21. DE: Portals on different Levels of Administration PortalUBund/Länderportal National INSPIRE Geoportal Landes-Umweltportal Landesdatenkatalog (OGC konform) Geoportal Provincional Kommunale Portale Municipal

  22. AT: The Coordination Centre (KUI) provides information • KUI informs the public about its activities on the Internet at http://www.umweltbundesamt.at/koordinierungsstelle/. • KUI also provides information on the Environmental Information Act (EIA 2004, UIG 2004) at HELP.gv.at http://www.help.gv.at/Content.Node/166/Seite.1660000.html • The platform of the working group Environmental Information (UW-UI) on the Reference Server at http://reference.e-government.gv.at/Q-UI_Umweltinformation.1024.0.html

  23. Conclusions • Timely and sound environmental information is the basis for • Control of compliance with the environmental law • Better public participation • Increase of knowledge on the state of the environment • Prevention of potential pollution • Prevention of competitive distortion • And thus an element of political democracy • European initiatives are well founded on the Aarhus Convention and are currently being legally and technically implemented

  24. Thank you very much for your interest! michael.nagy@umweltbundesamt.at rudolf.legat@umweltbundesamt.at hrebicek@iba.muni.cz

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