ProjectsGoodGovernance - TWiki

"Good Governance and the rule of Law in Croatian Environmental Policy".

(CARDS 2003/04)

About the project

The project aims at bridging the knowldge gap in environmental policy and legal issues related to environment among Croatian lawyers and environmental NGOs in order to improve their capacity to influence environmental policy and empower citizens by providing legal aid and advice. The project partners are three representative organizations of environmental NGO network: Green Action, Zelena istra i Sunce, who will organise main activities of the project: seminar education for lawyers and Green Forum members in environmental legal issues, monitoring of Croatian environmental legislation harmonisation with EU laws, proposal on EIA Law drafting, media campaign for the adoption of EIA Law and advisory services for the citizens contacting Green Forum for legal aid in environmental issues. Target groups are lawyers, Green Forum member organisations and public in general and activities will cover the whole Croatia.

Even though there were a number of cases calling for the court procedure, only one ecological suit was filed in Croatia so far, by the member of Green Forum, Zelena Istra in 1996. against the construction of coal-fired power plant Plomin II. The process entailed excessive court costs, paying for the new EIA study and other environmental impact analysis, Zelena Istra could not afford it and lost the case. High court expenses and slow judiciary are deterrent for citizens to undertake similar actions. In adition, environmental issues are not taken seriously in the Croatian legal sistem and there is no lawyer specialist in this area! Therefore, the actions planned in this project promote the objectives of CARDS 2003/04, the rule of law and good governance, through capacity building of Croatian lawyers, environmental NGOs in Croatia and the public. Green Forum is highly aware of necessity to ensure support of judiciary by educating lawyers in environmental legal issues and to hire legal help when analysing laws and providing advice to citizens.






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