European court rules environmental groups can’t legally oppose EU institutions; only corporations get a say

Thursday, February 26, 2015
By Paul Martin

by: J. D. Heyes
NaturalNews.com
Thursday, February 26, 2015

In a recent decision, the European Court of Justice ruled that environmental non-governmental organizations and other NGOs possess no right to file actions with the court, meaning they cannot legally oppose any European Union institution — though profiteering global corporations have had, and will continue to have, access to court.

As noted in a press release from the Pesticide Action Network (PAN), the ruling has serious implications in that groups opposed to GMO crops, for example, now appear to have been shut out of the judicial process.

PAN further noted that the high court’s ruling was in contrast with a 2012 ruling by the General Court of Luxembourg, which sided with NGOs and said that they should be granted court access. Also, in May 2014, the Court of Justice’s Advocate-General, Niilo Jaaskinen, released a finding to the court that upheld the right for NGO access.

As PAN’s press release stated:

NGO’s therefore cannot challenge Commission decisions such the decision to massively relax the food standards for pesticide residues as PAN Europe did in 2008, as well as challenge the derogation that Commission granted to the Netherlands for meeting air pollution standards as Friends of the Earth-NL did.

“A sorry step backward”

The Rest…HERE

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