Public participation in environmental protection

The need to ensure public participation in proceedings relating to the protection of the environment stems directly from the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (ratified by Poland).

In Polish law, rules and procedures for public participation in environmental proceedings are set out under the Act of 3 October 2008 on providing information on the environment and environment protection, public participation in environmental protection and on the environmental impact assessment1 (formerly, the relevant provisions were included in the Act of 27 April 2001 Environmental Protection Law [PL]).

Everybody has the right to participate, under the terms of the above Act, in proceedings requiring public participation.

Special powers in a proceeding requiring public participation are granted to environmental organisations, which may at any time during the proceedings report their willingness to take part in, and they can participate as a party therein, as defined in the Act of 14 June 1960 Code of Administrative Procedure [PL].

According to Polish environmental law, public participation is required to occur before:

  1. issuance of any decision in which an environmental impact assessment procedure is conducted for projects likely to significantly impact the environment1 or before amendment of such a decision.
  2. issuance of any decision in which an impact assessment procedure is conducted on NATURA 2000 network areas other than the above projects and not directly related to area protection or not arising out of this protection or before amendment of a decision.
  3. issuance of any decision on GMOs, expressing consent for the contained use of GMOs, marketing of GMOs, deliberate release of GMOs into the environment for purposes other than placing on the market and the export and transit of GMO products.

The procedure for public participation includes:

  1. Public informing about the conducted proceedings.
  2. Presenting the case documentation for inspection by the public.
  3. Submitting by the public of comments and requests.
  4. Considering of the comments.
  5. Informing the public about the decision issued.

1. This publication does not constitute a source of law. According to the Act of 20 July 2000 on the promulgation of acts of law and some other acts (Journal of Laws of 2007 No. 68, item 449), the only sources of law in the Republic of Poland are acts of law announced and published in the Journal of Laws and the Polish Monitor.