Skip to content

Location successfully changed to English (Global)

Follow us

Support us Opens in a new window Donate
Return to mob menu

Search the site

ClientEarth Communications

24th September 2018

Improving Access to Justice – Focus on Central Europe

Justice and Environment and ClientEarth are pleased to announce the launch of a project to further improve access to justice in Central Europe.

Thanks to the International Visegrad Fund (IVF), four organisations from the Visegrad region (V4) – Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic –are going to strengthen their cooperation on access to justice.

The Fund is helping to further the mission of the EU funded ATOJ-EARL project to raise awareness among legal professionals about access to justice in environmental matters.

Thanks to this increased cooperation, environmental lawyers working on access to justice issues at public interest environmental law organisations from all four Visegrad countries met on 10 September 2018 to discuss the implementation of judicial training in 2018-2020.

Experts from Austria, Estonia and Germany also joined, as well as to two colleagues from the Ombudsman Office for Future Generations in Hungary.

According to the latest EU Justice Scoreboard report, a number of indicators suggest the V4 countries are performing outstandingly well. Despite this, a lot remains to be done to ensure effective and efficient access to justice in the V4 region.

This project running until 30 November is co-financed by the governments of Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.

Click here to find more information about it.

The project

Access to Justice is a fundamental means through which citizens and NGOs can support the implementation and enforcement of laws and policies to protect the environment. The goal of this ATOJ-EARL project is to achieve “Access to Justice for a Greener Europe”. It strives to enhance access to justice in environmental matters by providing information, training and support for the judiciary, public authorities and lawyers of eight European member states. ClientEarth and Justice and Environment are implementing this project with the financial support of the European Commission’s LIFE instrument.