Environmental Information Act

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Basic data
Title: Environmental Information Act
Abbreviation: UIG
Type: Federal law
Scope: Federal Republic of Germany
Legal matter: Administrative law , environmental law
References : 2129-42
Original version from: July 8, 1994
( BGBl. I p. 1490 )
Entry into force on: July 16, 1994
New announcement from: October 27, 2014
( BGBl. I p. 1643 )
Last revision from: December 22, 2004
( BGBl. I p. 3704 )
Entry into force of the
new version on: 		February 14, 2005
Last change by: Art. 2 G of July 20, 2017
( Federal Law Gazette I p. 2808, 2834 )
Effective date of the
last change: 		July 29, 2017
(Art. 4 G of July 20, 2017)
GESTA : N031
Weblink: Text of the law
Please note the note on the applicable legal version.

The German Environmental Information Act ( UIG ) aims to create free access to environmental information and to disseminate environmental information. It applies directly to federal agencies that are required to provide information. The environmental information laws of the federal states apply to agencies of the respective federal states that are obliged to provide information and either refer to the UIG or independently regulate the same issue.

history

The Federal UIG was first established on July 8, 1994 in implementation of Council Directive 90/313 / EEC of June 7, 1990 on free access to information about the environment ( OJ 1990, No. L 158, p. 56 ) issued. Since Article 9 (1) of the directive should have been transposed by 31 December 1992 at the latest, there was a transposition deficit between 1 January 1993 and 8 July 1994 in which the directive was directly applicable. The UIG 1994 applied to both federal and state authorities.

Since the implementation at that time was partially restrictive and tried to hinder the right of inspection with relatively high fees and thus fell behind the directive, the European Court of Justice has condemned the Federal Republic of Germany to an infringement procedure initiated by the European Commission (case C-217/97 , judgment the 6th Chamber of September 9, 1999) to make adjustments. This happened on August 23, 2001 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 2218 ).

In implementation of the Aarhus Convention , the more extensive Directive 2003/4 / EC (OJ L No. 41 of February 14, 2003, p. 26) was issued on January 28, 2003, which replaced Directive 90/313 / EEC. To implement this, a new UIG was issued, which came into force on February 14, 2005. This now only applies to federal agencies that are obliged to provide information and to federal legal entities under public law. The federal legislature was of the opinion that it was no longer responsible for claims in the area of ​​the states. The information obligation of the authorities and other agencies of the federal states and municipalities is regulated in the relevant state laws.

With the passing of freedom of information laws at the federal level and in 13 federal states, which standardize a general right of access to public information, the Environmental Information Act acts as a special law , which usually offers more extensive information on environmental information.

Purpose of the law

In § 1 UIG it says programmatically:

"The purpose of this law is to create the legal framework for free access to environmental information for entities obliged to provide information and for the dissemination of this environmental information."

For the first time in the UIG 2004, the authorities are obliged to disseminate all "environmental information that is important for their tasks". This goes far beyond the UIG 1994, in which the authorities only had to provide information upon request. In addition, the concept of environmental information has been expanded to include health, safety and activities and measures that have an impact on the environment. In addition to the authorities, certain non-governmental agencies are now also required to provide information. A processing period (1 to 2 months) has been introduced.

The citizen should be able to make himself an advocate for the environment. Since a lot of environmental damage only affects future generations, there would otherwise be no "plaintiffs" living now. Transparency and the public should enable the population and environmental associations to recognize deficits in enforcement and possible dangers, problems and new tasks.

It serves to " raise environmental awareness, enable a free exchange of opinions and enable the public to participate more effectively in decision-making processes on environmental issues and ultimately improve environmental protection ."

Structure and content

In contrast to the tradition of German administrative law, which basically only grants claims to information or information as procedural rights, which in particular cannot be asserted independently in court, and thus only gives them an accessory character, the right to information is according to the UIG of the federal and state governments a real material claim to which the entitled person is entitled to independently and independently of the implementation of an administrative procedure.

Everyone is entitled to information. It does not require any particular legal interest and is independently enforceable ( Section 3 (1) UIG). The opponents of the claim are the bodies required to provide information that are more precisely specified in the law, which primarily include authorities; unlike under the old UIG, all authorities ( Section 2 UIG) and not only specifically environmentally-oriented authorities are now covered. In contrast to the Freedom of Information Act , the UIG has no exception for secret services. The federal UIG applies to the federal agencies and the respective state UIG applies to those of the state. Only environmentally relevant information can be requested, regardless of their age. As a result, environmental information can also be requested that was created before the Environmental Information Act came into force. The information can be transmitted in various forms. Appropriate fees can be charged. In certain cases, the body required to provide information can refuse to provide information, if the request for information is illegal (for example only to "let the officials rotate") ( Section 8 (2) UIG), if it concerns information from a procedure that has not yet been completed ( Section 8 (1) UIG) or sensitive company information ( Section 9 UIG: trade and business secrets, patent information or personal data within the meaning of the Federal Data Protection Act ).

Evaluation

The Independent Institute for Environmental Issues is currently evaluating the Federal Environmental Information Act on behalf of the Federal Environment Agency . The evaluation is scheduled to be completed in May 2019. The evaluation also includes the results of around 100 legal proceedings that have been conducted since the Environmental Information Act came into existence.

See also

literature

  • Carola Haas: Private individuals as those obliged to provide information according to the environmental information and freedom of information laws . Publishing house Dr. Kovac, Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-8300-6897-6 .
  • Svenja Matthes, Franziska Sperfeld, Michael Zschiesche: Practice of environmental information law in Germany. Empirical evaluation as a retrospective legal impact assessment. Independent Institute for Environmental Issues (UfU), Berlin 2013, summary (PDF; 66 kB)
  • Ulrich M. Gassner: Environmental Information Act (UIG). Comment. 2006, ISBN 3-8293-0774-8 .
  • Andreas Geiger: Environmental information law in the EU and its implementation in Germany. In: Lawyer Gazette . 7/2010.
  • Matthias Niedzwicki: Environmental Information Directive and Environmental Information Act . on: www.jurawelt.de
  • Christoph Palme: State Environmental Information Act (LUIG) Baden-Württemberg. Comment. 2007, ISBN 978-3-8293-0803-8 .
  • Stefan Stern: The protection of company data, company and trade secrets in the Environmental Information Act. Thesis. Grin, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-640-77204-9 .
  • Alfred Scheidler: The right to access environmental information - for the new version of the Environmental Information Act . In: Environmental and Planning Law. 26.2006, 1, ISSN  0721-7390 , pp. 13-17.
  • Jürgen Fluck, Andreas Theuer (Ed.): Freedom of information law with environmental information and consumer information law, IFG / UIG / VIG, regulations of the EU, the federal government and the states, international law, case law. Commentary, as of: 16th act. 2006. CF Müller Verlag, Heidelberg 1994, ISBN 3-8114-9270-5 .
  • Roland Hartmannsberger: Information requirements . In: Redeker / Uechtritz (Hrsg.): Kölner Handbuch Verwaltungsverfahren . 3rd edition 2016, ISBN 978-3-452-28687-1 .

Web links

Environmental information laws of the countries

EU guidelines

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ First consideration of Directive 2003/4 / EC of the European Parliament and the Council of January 28, 2003 .
  2. ↑ Evaluation of the Environmental Information Act. In: UfU. Retrieved April 6, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Court decisions on freedom of information. In: LDA Brandenburg. Retrieved April 6, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Brochure on the introduction of the Baden-Württemberg Environmental Management Act with legal text and reasons. Publisher: Ministry for the Environment, Climate and Energy Baden-Württemberg
  5. ↑ Lex Greenpeace: Saxony secretly changes the law to keep reports secret. In: netzpolitik.org. February 19, 2019, accessed April 6, 2019 .