Access to justice for state aid decisions contravening environmental law

The document argues that the EU is currently in breach of the Aarhus Convention because the public and environmental NGOs lack a viable legal mechanism to challenge state aid decisions that violate environmental law. It explains that current CJEU admissibility standards effectively exclude NGOs, and that national court actions are insufficient substitutes. The briefing addresses business concerns, stating that a new review procedure would not be suspensive (meaning aid can still be granted and spent during litigation) and would not compromise confidential business information. It evaluates three options proposed by the Commission to grant access to justice, favoring the amendment of the EU Aarhus Regulation as the most legally certain and democratic solution.

• The Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee found the EU in breach of the Aarhus Convention for not providing the public and environmental NGOs with access to justice to challenge Commission state aid decisions that breach environmental law.
• Existing EU legal channels for challenging state aid decisions are practically inaccessible to NGOs because the CJEU's admissibility standard requires a party to be 'directly (and individually) concerned', a threshold that excludes those representing public rather than private interests.
• Compliance with EU environmental law is a mandatory condition for a state aid measure to be compatible with the internal market; if a measure breaches environmental law, the Commission must declare it incompatible without further examination.
• A new administrative review procedure would not legally delay the grant of aid, as challenges to EU acts are not suspensive, meaning decisions remain in force and aid can be spent while litigation is ongoing.
• The European Commission has proposed three options for granting access to justice: amending the EU Aarhus Regulation, creating a procedure under the Code of Best Practices, or using Council Regulation 2015/1589.
• Existing complaint procedures are insufficient to meet the requirements of the Aarhus Convention because they do not constitute a formal 'challenge' of a decision and often leave the commencement of action to the authority's discretion.

APA

ClientEarth (2024). Access to justice for state aid decisions contravening environmental law. https://www.clientearth.org/media/lqhb4c1p/access-to-justice-in-state-aid-legal-q-a-clientearth-august-2024.pdf

Chicago

ClientEarth. Access to justice for state aid decisions contravening environmental law. 2024. https://www.clientearth.org/media/lqhb4c1p/access-to-justice-in-state-aid-legal-q-a-clientearth-august-2024.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=ClientEarth |title=Access to justice for state aid decisions contravening environmental law |date=August 2024 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/lqhb4c1p/access-to-justice-in-state-aid-legal-q-a-clientearth-august-2024.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{clientearth2024access, author = {{ClientEarth}}, title = {{Access to justice for state aid decisions contravening environmental law}}, institution = {ClientEarth}, year = {2024}, month = aug, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/lqhb4c1p/access-to-justice-in-state-aid-legal-q-a-clientearth-august-2024.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }