J&E Hungary – EMLA
EMLA is J&E’s seat in Hungary. Dr Csaba Kiss of EMLA is J&E’s current president.
EMLA was founded in 1992 and has been providing pro bono legal assistance since 1994. In the last ten years EMLA has become a significant performer in the field of environmental protection in Hungary.
To date, EMLA has had a total of over four-hundred and fifty environmental cases and the same number of projects, as well as over one-hundred interviews and presentations (some related to cases and others which provided general information). Cases managed by EMLA attorneys include large scale national issues (construction of highways or hazardous waste incinerators) as well as local community environmental concerns, such as conservation of local wetlands, protection against noise and air pollution by road traffic and by shopping centers.
Cases represented by EMLA lawyers are numerous, but a few examples to mention are claiming compensation for loss of neighboring property values and imposing the precautionary principle on telecommunications companies in lawsuits against mobile telephone antennas, representation of public protests against the M0 bypass highway constructions close to densely inhabited areas around Budapest, litigation against the loss of green space on the famous Margaret Island in the heart of Budapest, support of civil movement to limit heavy truck traffic within settlements such as the town of Dabas, legal advice to a municipality fighting an improperly constructed old landfill in the village of Csorog, lawsuits against power generator investments in Natura 2000 areas.
Examples of projects managed by EMLA are technical support to the Hungarian Government (Ministry of Environment) in transposing EU directives into the national legal system (the Water Framework Directive, the EIS and SEA directives, the Access to Information Directive), writing the legal component for the Hungarian Academy of Sciences of the Hungarian research VAHAVA on national actions against climate change, running a non-profit law development programme subsidized by the Trust Fund, and analyzing Corporate Social Responsibility in Hungary as a partner organization of a 6-New Member State joint project financed by DG Social.
EMLA in J&E in 2009
Environmental Management and Law Association (EMLA) as a founding member[1] of Justice and Environment (J&E) and providing the latter’s Hungary Staff has executed activities relating to the implementation of EU environmental law both on the international/supranational/EU level and the national level in 2009.
On the national level, J&E Hungary staff[2] consisting of dr. Csaba Kiss, dr. Zsuzsanna Berki and dr. Ágnes Gajdics environmental attorneys has undertaken activities within the topic area “external advocacy and capacity building”.
J&E Hungary staff prepared a number of legal studies (shorter and longer ones) in connection with legal cases before Hungarian administrative and judicial organs and also relating to those legal problems that were brought into the attention of J&E Hungary by external clients. These cases and/or legal problems affected areas such as waste management, air and noise, climate change and public participation. These studies – as per the established protocol at J&E Hungary – include a description of the facts, a legal evaluation of the factual situation as well as a suggestion for legal tools to solve the problems that emerged in connection with the implementation of the law. Since waste management, air and noise, climate change and public participation laws of Hungary heavily rely on the EU environmental acquis, the studies are at the same time indicators of how the Community environmental law is implemented in Hungary. Such studies eventually feed into the service of J&E Hungary that has long traditions and that has been continuously upheld by the respective staff in order to provide free legal advice and representation to the public in Hungary in cases involving the implementation of environmental law, amongst others those pieces of legislation that are implementing the EU environmental legal framework. Complementing this activity, J&E Hungary – also as a tradition ranging back to several years – keeps the substantive legal decisions in its cases where J&E Hungary staff members provided advice and representation, uploaded and available at the www.emla.hu website[3].
While J&E Hungary is not running an officially recognized educational activity, its staff has engaged in many ways in educating and training the members of the public and raising their awareness in terms of the implementation of EU environmental law. Such occasions include lecturing to students at law faculties, participating in a clinical legal education program, discussing matters of importance with representatives of environmental NGOs and also raising the awareness of individual clients who learn legal issues through their own cases[4]. Promotion of public participation in the society is a core mission of J&E and also of J&E Hungary; therefore we consider almost every one of our activities qualifying as such.
Alongside with these activities, a number of primary and secondary legislative initiatives that concern the environment were read and evaluated by J&E Hungary staff. National as well as international meetings were on the list of those events where staff members of J&E Hungary have participated, and that had relevance regarding the implementation of EU environmental law[5].
J&E Hungary’s activities have been successful in three different ways:
- first of all, the fact that the operation was successfully guaranteed is a success in itself, complemented by the fact that many important issues were brought up by J&E Hungary that affect the proper implementation of environmental law in Hungary, partly rooted in the EU environmental legal framework
- however, also the number of cases won at administrative or judicial forums indicates the success of J&E Hungary (this number has reached at least 10 in 2009)
- the number of satisfied clients is also an indicator of success, and this can only be estimated to have reached at least 50
[1]http://emla.hu/englishsite/index.shtml?conds[0][category........]=Rolunk&iview=58&slice_id=777ad89538966d33b9d5fb7d0e49b91c&NmbFullBoxes=1&mlx=EN-ONLY
[2]http://emla.hu/englishsite/index.shtml?conds[0][category.......1]=munkatars&iview=79&slice_id=35d4beaf32a03c618d6739d2ab3739ee&NmbFullBoxes=1000&sort[0][integer.........]=a&mlx=EN-ONLY
