International Journal of Research in Social Sciences
Year : 2016, Volume : 6, Issue : 5
First page : ( 699) Last page : ( 712)
Online ISSN : 2249-2496.

EU and Civil Society Participation in Environmental Matters

Kërtusha Floreta¹, MA

¹PhD Candidate in, International Relation of EU, Institute of European Studies, University of Tirana

Online published on 28 July, 2016.

Abstract

During recent years, the concept of civil society has obtained increasing popularity in European Union. Institutionalized interest groups (think tanks, NGOs, Trade Unions etc.) have tried to influence and shape discourses and legal basis on civil society participation in decision-making process in certain policy areas. However, a long road lay ahead to a ‘functional democracy' and a developed civil society sector, where a ‘functional democracy' is useful to ensure the room for democratic participation of citizens through associations. Indeed, the main scope of this research is limited to one of the most Europeanized internal policies such as Environment Policy. Hence, this paper will be focused on the EU Directive 2003/35/EC providing for public participation in respect of the drawing up of certain plans and programs relating to the environment matters and amending with regard to public participation and access to justice. In order to explain the importance and the involvement of the civil society in decision-making process and access to justice in environmental matters, this paper aims at providing an answer to the following research question: Does the EU Directive 2003/35/EC strengthen and improve civil participation and access to justice in environmental matters?

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Keywords

access to justice, environmental matters, civil society, functional representation, functional participation, public participation.

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