Projects

Public participation in Europe but also in the world would not be so strong and organized without the Aarhus Convention. And certainly the Aarhus Convention would not exist without starting the Environment for Europe movement by the Czech minister of environment in 1991, amidst the euphoric atmosphere of Eastern European political changes. Within this process, European ministers of environment held regular conference. At one of these events, in 1995 the Sofia Guidelines was adopted, whence the Aarhus Convention grew out in 1998. 

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The project “Progress in collective redress mechanisms in environmental and consumer mass harm situations” is supported by the Visegrad Fund. It is taking place from 1 of February 2018 to 31 of July 2019 and its main research topic deals with introducing and functioning of collective mechanisms of legal redress in mass harm situations or situations of violations of laws in the field of environmental protection and consumer protection. The project will pay special attention to the role of non-governmental organizations in both the environmental and consumer field. Therefore, representatives of such organizations of all four Visegrad countries are involved. The Institute of State and Law of the Czech Academy of Science coordinates the project.

Questions: rita.simon@nullilaw.cas.cz

Air quality within our surroundings is significantly degraded throughout the country due to the management and combustion of household waste and garden waste, damaging both the environment and human health. Defending the right to a healthy environment, EMLA provides legal advice and legal representation to the public. Our project is supported by the Ministry of Rural Development of Hungary, Zöld Forrás program.

The United Nations Environment Program conducted a research covering literally all countries of Earth on how the production, trade and related waste management of plastic bags, single use plastic utensils (e.g. plastic straws) and microbeads in cosmetics are regulated. EMLA Association coordinated and managed the work of researchers from 41 European countries and transferred the country reports to the interim coordinator, the Washington-based World Resources Institute.

Upon a request from Biota from Latvia, we prepared a brief legal study on whether there is a possibility in Hungarian law to introduce easements with a nature conservation objective. We also examined if and to what extent existing easement types (easement in gross, appurtenant easements, etc.) can be applied for nature conservation purposes.

EMLA provided project management services to the Municipality of Törökbálint Town in its project called Establishing Local and Sub-regional Economic Development by Capacity Building and Knowledge Transfer at the Municipality, funded by the Norwegian Fund.

Air quality within our surroundings is significantly degraded throughout the country due to the management and combustion of household waste and garden waste, damaging both the environment and human health. Defending the right to a healthy environment, EMLA provides legal advice and legal representation to the public. Our project is supported by the Ministry of Rural Development of Hungary, Zöld Forrás program.

Upon a request by Frank Bold (Brno, Czech Republic), our sister organisation in Justice & Environment, we prepared a survey of legal steps necessary for the preparation and construction of a medium size photovoltaic solar power plant in Hungary. We described the way of modification of spatial plans at the municipality of the selected location, the specialities of purchasing a real estate property, the applications for electricity production licence and connection to the national electricity grid and finally the procedure of the simplified construction permitting.

In cooperation with CEE Bankwatch association, EMLA is working in a project related to the lifetime extension of Ukrainian Nuclear Power Plants. Bankwatch initiated a case at the Court of Justice of the EU for access to information, consulted with the Espoo Convention Secretariat and have sent advocacy letters to neighbouring governments in order to convince Ukraine to implement the Espoo Convention for the permitting of NPP PLEX.

Upon the request of our Slovakian colleagues, we prepared a short legal study on how the environmental impact assessment obligation is regulated in Hungary in relation to highway constructions and upgrading of existing highways.