The sixth year of EMLA's Practical Branch activities saw steady growth and changing attitudes, both internal and external. Our environmental attorneys, myself included, had always thought our place was in the courtroom and that legal projects were secondary. It is now more than clear that for our public interest legal advocacy work to be successful, we must consider both cases and projects (active participation and leadership in international organizations, national and international legislative programs, studies, research, teaching, and other related tasks) an integral part of a whole.

In 1994, when the two-and-one-half year-old EMLA established its public interest environmental legal advisory service, the vision was singular: we would be the attorneys for Hungarian environmental NGOs and local communities faced with environmental legal problems. It was an ambitious, but not impossible task, and it has since grown. Today, EMLA's three attorneys handle an average of sixty significant cases per year and advise self-help steps in a number of others in which the NGO or local group is capable of handling the issue on its own. The unique experience we have piled up over these six years through our public interest environmental advocacy work is clearly not only something that should be shared, but it is also in demand. We are bombarded with requests to write studies and expert legal opinions?some quite prestigious?and it is clear that in some instances this means of public interest advocacy is much more productive for the Hungarian environmental community than would be seeking resolution through individual cases.

This year we continued to write studies promoting the Aarhus Convention on Public Participation in Environmental Decisionmaking and Access to Justice. We continued our large environmental information projects such as the Geographic Information System designed to show waste sites on the R/kos-patak watershed. We participated in the development of national and international Environmental Impact Assessment regulations, and we have continued the development of a favorite Western environmental tool, the Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTRs), in Hungary.

EMLA staff and members further enriched Hungarian environmental legal literature with a handbook on environmental law aimed at the public, a first of its kind compilation and evaluation of the legal responsibilities of Hungarian environmental authorities.

These Scientific Branch efforts are valuable to the cause of public participation in Hungary. Even so, EMLA's lawyers will continue to stand on the side of public participation rights and environmental rights, in the courtroom if necessary. In this annual report there are a variety of programs and cases that show the rapid growth of public participation in environmental decision making in Hungary. Have a look around, and be sure to get back to us with any questions you might have?our contact information is at the back of the report.

We at EMLA are proud of having our hand in the development of public participation rights and we heartily thank those of our supporters who continue to stand with us!

Dr. Sándor Fülöp