1. Access to environmental justice in Spain: State of the art
Miriam Ruiz Arias
PhD University of Salamanca

2. Table of Contents Overview First Approach to Aarhus European Law
Spanish integration of the Access to Justice (Aarhus Convention) and European Directives
Administrative Law
Legal Remedies of Access to Environmental Information
Legal Remedies of Denial of Public Participation
Access to Justice
Criminal Law
Effective Enforcement
Final Remarks

3. Overview
In the context of fighting against climate change, global warming and also with a higher environmental awareness, it is not unusual to encounter popular actions in the different EU Member States, as well as at the level of the European Union, to protect the environment against large multinational business interests.

4. First Approach to Aarhus European Law
European Union has been a party of the Aarhus Convention since 2005 and the integration has been made with the Regulation 1367/2006 and Directives 2003/4/CE and 2003/35/CE.
Regulation 1367/2006 is about the implementation of Aarhus Convention in the institutions of European Union.
Directive 2003/4 is about the access to information
Directive 2003/35 modifies the Directives IPPC and Directive EIA
European Court of Justice Cases C-404/112 p y C-405/112 p, Consejo y Comisión/Stichting Natuur en Milieu y Pesticide Action Network Europe (13/01/2015): Non Govermental Organizations of EU (NGO) have more difficulties to access to EU justice since they can only appeal in Member State Judges.

5. Spanish integration of the Access to Justice (Aarhus Convention) and European 2003 Directives
Administrative Law
Criminal Law
Legislation Act 27/2006 regulating access to information, public participation and access to justice in environmental matters.
This law only refers to Administrative Law: NGO can contest the decision in administrative law as well as in contentious administrative order if the Public Authority violates the rights which are recognised in this law.
The right to legal aid are recognised in article 23 of Law 27/2006 and the procedural aspects are referred in Law 1/1996 of the Legal Aid.
Organic Law of the Judicial Branch (Arts. 7.3 and 19.1)
Code of Criminal Procedure (Arts. 101, 270, 280 and 281)

6. Spanish integration of the Access to Justice (Aarhus Convention) and European 2003 Directives. Continuation
Criminal Law
Administrative Law
Legal Remedies of Access to Environmental Information
This right is recognised in article 20 of the Law.
If the Authority denies this right you can appeal before it in accordance with the Law governing general government institutions and Common Administrative Pro cedure and when the administrative process is ended, it can be possible to appeal in terms of the Law governing Administrative Jurisdiction.
Class Action in Criminal Procedures after the perpetration of a environmental crime (Arts. 325 – 341 of Spanish Criminal Code)
This class action is recognised to NGO that are not offended by the crime, submitting a grievance and after the payment of the legal expenses or judicial bain bold.
The Constitutional Court of Spain and Provincial Court recognized the right to exercise the class action to NGO.

7. Spanish integration of the Access to Justice (Aarhus Convention) and European 2003 Directives. Continuation
Criminal Law
Administrative Law
Legal Remedies of Denial of Public Participation
This right is recognised in article 20 of the Law.
The law does not provide any remedy to object to the denial of this right, so, it invokes the Law governing general government institutions and Common Administrative Procedure.
Class action of legal entity or environmental NGO: Judgement of Spanish Constitutional Court 34/1994:
This right is part of the right to legal protection (Art Spanish Constitution).
Its legal basis is art. 125 Spanish Constitution.
The criminal action can be exercised by class action too.

8. Administrative Law Criminal Law
Spanish integration of the Access to Justice (Aarhus Convention) and European 2003 Directives. Continuation
Criminal Law
Administrative Law
Access to Justice
This right is recognised in articles 22 y 23 of the Law and it is only against Authority acts/omissions that violate environmental regulations mentioned in article 18.1 of the Law (Water Acts, Pollution, EIA, Biotechnology, among others).
It is a kind of class action or legal power recognized to Environmental NGO who:
Has as objective the protection of the Environment or one of its elements.
Is two years old
Has an operational exercise of their main aims
Has as territorial scope of performance the place which is affected by the Authority decision.
Special Reference to Judgements of Spanish Supreme Court 1047/2007 (Botín Judicial Case) and 54/2008 (Atutxa Judicial Case):
In a fast track procedure is not possible to start the oral trial only under the request of a class action if the General Prosecutor and private prosecutor request the acquittal of the case.

9. Administrative Law Criminal Law
Spanish integration of the Access to Justice (Aarhus Convention) and European 2003 Directives. Continuation
Administrative Law
Criminal Law
Access to Justice. Continuation.
Apart from Law 27/2006, in Spain there are other options to access to environmental justice:
Article 19.1.A of the Law governing Administrative Jurisdiction
Holder of environmental individual or colective rights owners:
Excusive and subjective rights.
Article 19.1.H of the Law governing Administrative Jurisdiction
Environmental Class Action: any citizen can exercise this class action when it is specifically recognized in any law and the aim is to protect the legality.
Article 19.1.B of the Law governing Administrative Jurisdiction
Legal title habilitation to protect collective interests such as Law 27/2006
Article 19.3 of the Law governing Administrative Jurisdiction
Neightbourhood entitlement when the local authorities does not institute legal procedings to protect the environment.
Special Reference to Judgement of Spanish Supreme Court 54/2008 (Atutxa Judicial Case):
This Judgement only refers to this specific situation (outlawing of a Political Party).
If, taking into account the severity of the crime or the lack of private prosecutor, only the Public Prosecutor exercise the criminal action together with the class action, the Public Prosecutor does not end with the protection of public interest/god.

10. Effective Enforcement
The Spanish Law does not complete the features of effective, objective, equal, quickly and free or low price appeals.
The taxes and prices of the judgements are very expensive since it is necessary to pay expert witnesses.
The excessive duration of the proceedings and there are some difficulties to cease the urban planning network.
There are more guilty verdicts in Criminal proceedings than in Administrative proceeding.

11. Final Remarks
It is necessary to improve the access of NGO to European Justice.
The Spanish Law 27/2006 need cheaper, quicker and more independent appeals.
It may be advisable to have an appeal against private acts and not only appeals to Public Authority acts.
The taxes to pay lawyers, solicitors, expert witnesses and other judicial taxes should be cheaper and it not should be necessary for the NGO to certify the lack of monetary resources.
The law courts have to continue recognizing the class actions to Environmental NGO.
This class action does not have to be subject to the execution of the criminal action by the Public Prosecutor.
In those cases where the judges need to weigh the environmental interests and other Constitutional interest, they should elect the environmental interests.

12. My sincere thanks to the public and to the organizers of the Congress.
Miriam Ruiz Arias