Some particularities of the Aarhus Convention implementation in Malta and Ukraine: the issues of green democracy

Abstract

The process of the Aarhus Convention implementation is the subject of this article. The article is a result of a long going interest of the author in the issues of green democracy, as well as a professional experience working in the Maltese environmental NGO (BirdLife Malta), whose big share of work is dedicated to the implementation of the Aarhus Convention provisions. The author aims at making an attempt to compare the specifics of the Aarhus Convention implementation process in Ukraine and the EU country (Malta) to define particularities and tendencies, as well as to suggest certain recommendations to improve or foster the state of implementation. The grounds of the article rests on such fundamental categories as green (environmental) democracy, the right to environmental information and free access to justice on environmental matters, mechanisms of public participation in decision making process. The comparison is built upon the study of the last available national reports on the progress of implementation in Ukraine and Malta, as well as on the results of two expert surveys conducted by the author in years 2013 and 2020. Firstly, certain important formal and procedural aspects of implementation process in the two countries are explained: institutional particularities and distribution of responsibilities; legislative framework formed by the countries to embed Convention principles into the national legislation. The next part of the article is divided into several paragraphs – each of them focuses on the specifics of different ecological rights guarantees and exercise in Malta and Ukraine: the right to access environmental information; participate in decision making; access to justice on environmental matters. Apart from comparing the Maltese and Ukrainian experience, the author also tries to define some trends and changes relevant for Ukraine itself