Conference on the Future of Europe

ClientEarth argues that the EU suffers from a persisting democratic deficit that hinders the implementation of the European Green Deal. The organization recommends four primary reforms: increasing transparency in decision-making (particularly in comitology and the EIB), granting the public direct access to the Court of Justice of the EU, ensuring EU accession to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to close human rights gaps in climate and environmental governance, and expanding the ordinary legislative procedure to all environmental matters to remove Member State vetoes on critical issues like fuel taxation.

• EU decision-making processes remain opaque despite existing transparency rules, with institutions often publishing documents only after decisions are finalized. This is particularly evident in 'comitology' procedures for technical implementation, Commission expert groups, Council legislative deliberations, and the European Investment Bank (EIB).
• Current EU rules limit the public's ability to challenge environmental wrongdoing in the Court of Justice of the EU because Article 263 TFEU restricts direct access to acts that are of 'direct and individual concern' to the person, which rarely applies to general environmental laws.
• EU accession to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is necessary to provide remedies for human rights violations in areas of EU competence, such as climate change, chemicals regulation, clean air, and fisheries, where the EU itself may be responsible for the violation.
• The use of special legislative procedures requiring unanimity under Article 192(2) TFEU for certain environmental and fiscal matters creates a democratic deficit by giving any single Member State a veto and reducing the European Parliament to a consultative role.
• ClientEarth proposes that the Council should use its existing power under Article 192(2) TFEU to make the ordinary legislative procedure applicable to all environmental matters, including those currently requiring unanimity, to speed up law-making and increase accountability.

APA

ClientEarth (2022). Conference on the Future of Europe. https://www.clientearth.org/media/cg5eansb/clientearth-recommendations-cofoe.pdf

Chicago

ClientEarth. Conference on the Future of Europe. 2022. https://www.clientearth.org/media/cg5eansb/clientearth-recommendations-cofoe.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=ClientEarth |title=Conference on the Future of Europe |date=January 2022 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/cg5eansb/clientearth-recommendations-cofoe.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{clientearth2022conference, author = {{ClientEarth}}, title = {{Conference on the Future of Europe}}, publisher = {ClientEarth}, year = {2022}, month = jan, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/cg5eansb/clientearth-recommendations-cofoe.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }