A UN body has concluded that Sweden is not complying with the Aarhus Convention, which grants journalists and civil society organisations the right to obtain environmental information from public authorities.
The case centres on a complaint by EUobserver collaborator and journalist Staffan Dahllöf, which challenged the refusal of environmental information requests by the Swedish Chemicals Agency and two courts related to the pesticide chlorpyrifos.
The UN Aarhus Convention, signed by all 27 EU countries, has been used on several occasions to shed light and legally challenge decisions that may harm the environment. Due to an EU directive adopted in 2003, that convention is binding law in all EU member states.
The information requested was relevant to a decision on whether to approve the pesticide chlorpyrifos back in 2019.
Draft findings from the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee (ACCC), published on Monday (7 July), slammed Swedish authorities for not properly applying transparency rules. And in particular, for interpreting exceptions too broadly, particularly when the information is related to emissions, which usually should be made public.
Six years after the journalist's complaint, the committee argued that Swedish authorities neither granted access to the information nor properly explained their refusal.
And it recommended Stockholm to take “the necessary legislative, regulatory, administrative and practical measures” to ensure that there is no abuse in the application of exceptions, favour public interests, and clearly explain any decision to withhold information.
“This UN body can be of help for journalists and citizens if we are patient enough. Hopefully, Sweden will now agree with the committee’s recommendations,” Dahllöf told EUobserver.
Sweden has traditionally been seen as an example of transparency in policy-making, in contrast to some other EU member states and the EU institutions.
But in this case, the tables were turned. EFSA, the European Food Safety Agency, released the requested documents held back by the Swedish authorities before the final decision was taken.
The disputed pesticide chlorpyrifos was banned in the EU in January 2020.
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Elena is EUobserver's editor-in-chief. She is from Spain and has studied journalism and new media in Spanish and Belgian universities. Previously she worked on European affairs at VoteWatch Europe and the Spanish news agency EFE.
Elena is EUobserver's editor-in-chief. She is from Spain and has studied journalism and new media in Spanish and Belgian universities. Previously she worked on European affairs at VoteWatch Europe and the Spanish news agency EFE.