Serious concerns about the Swedish Presidency proposal for the Nature Restoration Law

A coalition of environmental organisations opposes the Swedish EU Presidency's effort to delete Article 16 from the proposed Nature Restoration Law, which would have granted citizens and NGOs the right to challenge the legality of national restoration plans. The signatories argue that relying on recitals or the Aarhus Convention is insufficient due to inconsistent compliance across EU Member States and the risk of irreparable environmental damage, as seen in Poland and Romania.

• The Swedish EU Presidency is attempting to remove Article 16 from the Commission's proposal for the Nature Restoration Law, which would have allowed citizens to "challenge the substantive or procedural legality of the national restoration plans" and provided legal standing for NGOs.
• The signatories argue that moving access to justice to a recital rather than an operative provision is insufficient because recitals have limited legal effects and cannot serve as a legal basis for claimants to enforce rights in court.
• Lack of explicit access to justice in national courts has led to delayed interventions and environmental damage, such as the felling of 200,000 cubic metres of wood in Poland's Białowieża Forest and the need for CJEU intervention to annul 7,000 hectares of Forest Management Plans in Romania.
• The claim that access to justice provisions are redundant is contested by the fact that 23 of 27 EU Member States have received recommendations to improve their domestic access to justice on environmental matters.
• Poor implementation of EU environmental legislation resulted in annual financial losses for Member States of approximately 55 billion Euros, according to a 2019 Commission review.

APA

ClientEarth (2023). Serious concerns about the Swedish Presidency proposal for the Nature Restoration Law. https://www.clientearth.org/media/qhzc342m/letter-to-the-swedish-presidency-and-eu-environmental-ministers-opposing-their-decision-to-eliminate-access-to-justice-provisions-from-the-nature-restoration-law.pdf

Chicago

ClientEarth. Serious concerns about the Swedish Presidency proposal for the Nature Restoration Law. 2023. https://www.clientearth.org/media/qhzc342m/letter-to-the-swedish-presidency-and-eu-environmental-ministers-opposing-their-decision-to-eliminate-access-to-justice-provisions-from-the-nature-restoration-law.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=ClientEarth |title=Serious concerns about the Swedish Presidency proposal for the Nature Restoration Law |date=27 March 2023 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/qhzc342m/letter-to-the-swedish-presidency-and-eu-environmental-ministers-opposing-their-decision-to-eliminate-access-to-justice-provisions-from-the-nature-restoration-law.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{clientearth2023serious, author = {{ClientEarth}}, title = {{Serious concerns about the Swedish Presidency proposal for the Nature Restoration Law}}, publisher = {ClientEarth}, year = {2023}, month = mar, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/qhzc342m/letter-to-the-swedish-presidency-and-eu-environmental-ministers-opposing-their-decision-to-eliminate-access-to-justice-provisions-from-the-nature-restoration-law.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }