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EU updates rules to comply with Aarhus

The European Commission has changed its rules on state aid to allow NGOs (non-governmental organisations) to ask for a review of certain decisions.

The commission says that the amendment will provide public access to justice in environmental matters in relation to EU state-aid decisions.

The change follows the 2021 findings of the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee, which found that the EU was in breach of the Aarhus Convention, because the public could not challenge state-aid decisions if these decisions allegedly breached EU environmental law.

The convention establishes the right of the public to environmental information held by public authorities.

Review mechanism

The EU body has also updated other provisions in the State aid Implementing Regulation and the State aid Best Practices Code (BPC).

The new review mechanism revision includes the following conditions, as specified in the BPC:

• Any NGO that meets a set of criteria may submit a review request,
• The acts that can be subject to review requests are final state-aid decisions closing the formal investigation procedure initiated under article 108(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU,
• Eligible NGOs would have to show that the aided activity or any of the aspects of the state-aid measure approved by the commission decision, that are inseparable from the goal of the aid, are in breach of a specific rule or specific rules of EU environmental law, and
• The request will have to be submitted through a form within eight weeks after the state-aid decision has been published in the Official Journal.

The amendment to the implementing regulation requires member states to confirm in the state-aid notification form that neither the aided activity nor the aid measure contravene EU environmental law.

The commission says that it will publish guidance on the change on its website in the fourth quarter of 2025.

“This new review mechanism strikes the right balance between providing access to justice in the area of EU environmental law and the specificities of the state-aid procedure,” said commissioner Teresa Ribera.