To adapt EU law to the first pillar of the Convention, which regulates access to environmental information, the Directive on environmental information has been amended. The new Directive 2003/4/EG takes the place of Directive 90/313/EWG dated 7 June 1990; it takes both the provisions of the Aarhus Convention and experience in applying the previous Directive, as well as the innovations in the field of communications technology, into account.

Among other important changes, the definition of environmental information has been widened, the deadlines for providing information have been tightened, and the authorities’ obligation to actively disseminate environmental information has been made firmer.

The negotiations within the EU institutions were concluded with a conciliation procedure between the Council of Ministers and the EU Parliament at the beginning of November 2002. On 14 February 2003 the Directive came into force; the member states had until 14 February 2005 to implement it.

Implementation in Austria

In Austria implementation at federal level took the form of an amendment to the Statute on Environmental Information, which came into force in February 2005. At provincial level the individual provinces’ statutes on environmental information has been amended accordingly (see box on the right, in German only).