Description
In a climate of constant degradation of the environment, the situation in Bucharest, Romania’s capital and largest city, is even worse. There is an ongoing trend of reducing the number of green spaces and the responsible authorities don’t show any sign of caution when approving such projects. Therefore, the project aims to improve public participation in matters concerning the environment, to enforce transparency in the involved public institutions and to impose sanctions for any unlawful decision taken. Every investment with an impact on the environment will be included in an on-line data base and put on an on-line map. Affected citizens will be mobilized to publicly participate in 6 chosen investments. Litigation procedures will start for 10 investments. The target group consists of decision-makers of Environmental Agencies and city halls, and the activities of the project will bring a change in their attitude through pressure which they will be subject to when faced with written demands and litigations.
Summary of project results
The project faced the environmental protection problems caused by the lack of transparency in the authorities’ activities, by the great amount of illegal decisions of the authorities and by the poor civic participation of the citizens affected by these decisions, in Bucharest. In order to support the public participation in this field, a guide was drafted for the petitioning activities and 180 requests for public access to information were sent to 11 public institution impacting environmental practices in Bucharest. 78 law suits for access to information were started. Also, 5 citizen meetings were organized and people were offered training, guidance and support in understanding applicable legislation for their situations and templates for their further petitioning actions. A map with over 900 carefully selected and potential environmentally harmful investments was created in an easily accessible online format and over 34,000 documents were published here. The project website has been visited by 27,712 persons. The 5 meetings with the citizens that were organized (118 participants attended as affected citizens), generated a number of 45 articles and press releases. Other 295 requests addressed to 11 relevant authorities were submitted. The cases of engaging and mobilizing citizens - Stirbei Palace, Luterana Street, Grivita Cinema, Tineretului Park, Herastrau Park, Debate at the Environmental Protection Agency - generated massive interest and there were sent requests for public information and commentaries to the institutions responsible for granting authorisations for the respective projects. Not only the petitioning practice acquired, but also the legal and practical capacity and the availability for initiating such future procedures has increased for all the affected citizens. The 11 institutions involved have been forced to publish online some of the information required by law. The increased number of published information was observed for 3 local city councils and the general mayor of Bucharest. One of the institutions has made available the requested information online (creating a new website) – The Agency for Environmental Protection – which is now substantially more transparent.
Summary of bilateral results