One World - Aarhus - your right to know and shape our environment (3)
What is environmental information?
It is important to consider what is defined by the term "environmental information", as used in the Convention and the respective European and national legislations, i.e the European Directive 2003/4/EC and Legal Notice (LN) 116/05.
The link to the full text of these legal documents is provided at the end of this chapter. Definitions basically cover any kind of information which relates to the environment since initially this definition was not unequivocally interpreted; the case law of the European Court of Justice ruled that the term "environmental information" has to be interpreted in a broad sense, including also information related to food and health issues.
This means that "environmental information" comprises the state of elements of the environment (like water, soil, landscape etc), factors of substances (like energy, noise, emissions, discharges), measures (like policies, plans, programmes, permits), reports, cost-benefit analyses, state of human health including contamination of the food chain, cultural sites and even, under certain conditions, built structures.
Further information on the latest guidelines on access to environmental information, public participation in environmental decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters are available on the Malta Environment and Planning Authority website (www.mepa.org.mt).