Environmental Information Directive - Just What Is In The Public Interest?

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) is to be faced with the task of interpreting the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR) to determine the correct approach to the application of the public interest test where a public authority seeks to rely on more than one exception under the EIR to withhold information.

Broadly speaking, the EIR give rights of public access to environmental information held by public authorities. The Regulations provide specifically that a public authority that holds environmental information shall make it available on request. There are however numerous exceptions to this general principle, including: where the information requested includes third party personal data, where the information request is manifestly unreasonable or where the request is too general, where the material requested is in the course of completion or contains unfinished documents or incomplete data, where the information discloses internal communications and where