J&E Austria in 2009

The Austrian J&E member organization is OEKOBUERO – Coordination Office of Austrian Environmental Organisations (www.oekobuero.at). J&E has established an office in Austria since 2008 in the premises of OEKOBUERO. Lawyers from OEKOUBERO and J&E Austria carry out projects in close collaboration.

Among OEKOBUERO’s 15 Austrian member organizations are NGOs such as Greenpeace CEE, WWF Austria, GLOBAL 2000/Friends of the Earth Austria, FOUR PAWS Austria (4 Pfoten) or the Austrian T&E branch VCO. OEKOBUERO is a member of the EEB (www.eeb.org) – European Environmental Bureau – in Brussels.

OEKOBUERO actively encourages and promotes communication and information exchange as well as cooperation between its member organizations, civil society and instituions. One of its major working fields is environmental law. OEKOBUERO provides legal services to environmental NGOs and citizen groups via its Environmental Law Service. It provides expertise in law drafting processes and organizes conferences and seminars different legal topics.

In 2009 J&E carried out the following activities within the framework of its workplan in Austria:

Maintaining an Environmental Law Service Centre (ELSC)

Together with J&E member OEKOBUERO J&E Austria maintained an ELSC throughout the year 2009. The centre provided for free legal advice and legal information (information texts and newsletters) with a focus on EIA and other environmental proceedings involving the public. 93 Cases were handled altogether in the course of 2009.

For more information (in German) see: http://www.oekobuero.at/start.asp?b=427

Newsletters containing English summaries: http://www.oekobuero.at/start.asp?b=437

Promotion of the Aarhus Almaty Guidelines

The Almaty Guidelines are based on the Aarhus Convention and provide for recommendations as regards public participation in international forums. A forum could be for example an international conference on a convention with environmental relevance. J&E Austria carried out interviews to find out about the current practice in Austria regarding this issue and organized a stakeholder workshop. Based on the information derived from these activities, J&E Austria developed recommendations for government and NGO stakeholders as regards an effective application of the Almaty Guidelines.

For more information see: German: http://doku.cac.at/alamaty_infosheet_jan2010.pdf; English: http://doku.cac.at/ppif_in_austria2010.pdf

Monitoring and Lobbying of transport projects towards the new member states

Nature in Austria, in particular in the eastern part of the country, has come under increasing pressure from road and railway projects directed towards the new member states (in particular the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary). J&E Austria acknowledges the need for an improved infrastructure in an enlarged Europe. Nevertheless it also sees the necessity to lobby for the choice of the most environmentally sound alternative and against ecologically and economically unsound projects. Examples of J&E Austria’s activities in this area are the lobbying efforts on the A5 highway together with J&E partner organisation EPS (Czech Republic) and a corresponding complaint to the Austrian Highest Administrative Court.

Lobbying legislation on a national level

J&E Austria works for an improvement of Austrian environmental legislation and thus has taken part in various legislative processes by compiling and disseminating position papers and by providing substantiated information to relevant decision-makers. Legislative proposals commented by J&E Austria included the EIA Act, the Transposition of the Environmental Liability Directive (federal and provincial ELD Acts), the Climate Change Bill and the Federal Roads Act.

For more information (in German) see: http://www.oekobuero.at/start.asp?b=443

Conferences on Road Noise and Re-Usable Packing for Beverages

J&E Austria co-organizes conferences on issues of environmental importance and current relevance in Austria. The issue of re-usable packing for beverages was and still is a contentious issue in Austria. The share of this type of packing is declining as compared to single-use packing even though it is more environmentally friendly. The conference tried to make the public and decision-makers aware of the problem and to illustrate how to create incentives for the use of re-usable packing.

The second conference co-organized by J&E Austria concerned the issue of action planning as regards road noise. This conference focused on the results achieved trough the existing road noise action plans created by the various competent authorities and on the prospects for an improved noise protection in the future.

Conference Packing: http://www.oekobuero.at/start.asp?showmenu=yes&fr=&b=1326&ID=227762

Conference Road Noise: http://www.oekobuero.at/start.asp?showmenu=yes&fr=&b=1326&ID=230192

J&E Austria in previous years

Cases
The majority of public concerned requests are about EIA-infrastructure projects (in particular federal motorways) as well as possible EIA-circumventions by salami slicing and expelling public concerned from EIA-screening (OKOBURO EIA information). OKOBURO has received requests from all Austrian regions (Bundeslander). Currently in many cases problems occur as to implementation of SEA and ambient air quality Directives. From case to case competent authorities are reluctant in providing information to the public. The Austrian Environmental information act has become a useful tool to purchase requested information, especially since the act was amended due to Aarhus-implementation.

Motorways toward CEE and around Vienna
A lot of cases requested to OKOBURO are located in the region of lower Austria (in and around Vienna). Many motorways are to be built in the next few years. The purpose for those plannings is to establish a motorway-ring around Vienna and to connect lower Austria to CEE countries. Though bearing in mind that connections to CEE are necessary, the political question is whether it makes sense to establish four to five high-level motorway connections in a small region for the same purpose as well as the question if it would make sense to think about other connections but motorways that would be less harmful to environment and health. The majority of the planned tracks are within air-quality low emission zone as air quality limit values are exceeded. Furthermore, there exists protected sites and endangered species. Some of the projects appear to be salami sliced for the purpose of meeting limit values that could not be met, if the whole project would be subject to EIA.

OKOBURO standing
OKOBURO has standing in the EIA-permit proceedings of one of the projects, motorway A5 Vienna-Brno. In the latter case OKOBURO cooperates with our J&E partner organization EPS as well as organizations like CEE Bankwatch network. Furthermore Justice&Environment and OKOBURO have been preparing a case study on the implementation of Austria EIA Directive and Aarhus convention. For that purpose the developments in lower Austria play a central role.

Newsflash
Next to pending cases OKOBURO published 2006 two Newsflash Enviornmental Law until July. Two more will follow in the next months. Newsflash April covered topics like Austrian and European ambient air quality legislation and implementation, information about environmental information legislation as well as implementation of SEA-Directive in Austria. Newsflash July covered implementation of environmental liability Directive, further and latest developments about ambient air legislation and implementation as well as information about J&E case studies on EIA-salami-slicing and expelling public from EIA-screening.

Ambient air
In June 2006 OKOBURO organized a conference about implementation of ambient-air quality Directives. On the agenda were not only recent developments on European level but especially the question of implementation and transposition the Directives in Austria. The amended Austrian ambient air act will make it easier to give permits also in low emissions zones, whereas abatement measures are hard to implement for legal reasons.

Environmental Liability
OKOBURO has been active in lobbying the implementation of the Environmental Liability Direcitve (ELD). For that purpose OKOBURO participated an EEB conference in Brussels in May 2006. A joint Austrian NGO-positions-paper by OKOBURO, J&E, FoE Austria, Greenpeace CEE, WWF Austria and others was submitted to the Austrian MoE in July 2006. In autumn 2006 OKOBURO organized an expert discussion with relevant stakeholders about ELD implementation in Austria.

Justice & Environment
In February 2006 OKOBURO hosted J&E kick-off meeting with regards to J&E workplan 2006 implementation. In June 2006 OKOBURO represented J&E at CEE Bankwatch AGM in Swinoujscie (PL) to discuss possible future cooperations. In June OKOBURO also attended J&E AGM in Wroclav. As mentioned above OKOBURO has been preparing case studies and legal analyses on EIA and Aarhus implementation for the purpose of J&E workplan implemenation 2006-2007.

CSR
In April 2006 OKOBURO hosted a workshop on CSR together with EPS. This workshop was part of an EPS CSR project which is implemented in 2006.