Justice and Environment Work Plan 2023

Introduction

J&E is a network of environmental legal NGOs that uses environmental law as a tool to ensure the protection of people and nature in EU Member States. J&E aims for better legislation and implementation of environmental law on the national and EU levels to protect the environment, people, and nature. J&E supports the implementation and enforcement of EU legislation through the use of European law and exchange of information.

Having more than one and a half decades of experience in doing that, we will in 2023 continue striving for our vision of Europe where environmental rules and their application provide and guarantee a healthy environment and sustainable development.

Focus Areas

J&E focuses on the implementation and transposition of horizontal legal issues. The strong grassroots contacts of our members have encouraged J&E to concentrate on horizontal problems with the Aarhus Convention, with special regard to:

1. State aid
2. SLAPP cases

Other pieces of environmental legislation we will focus on include:

• Strategic Environmental Assessment
• Environmental Impact Assessment
• Energy
• Indirectly, Natura 2000

While we often find overlaps or synergies between these fields, the lack of awareness or capacity of stakeholders – including governments, judicial authorities, investors, or the public – may also multiply the problems.

Climate Change

Finally, J&E also focuses on the most pressing environmental problems of our days, climate change, from a legal angle. We explore legal ways to tackle climate change and to enforce laws that oblige governments to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

Annual Work Plan

The annual 2023 work plan of J&E is a more specific description of our strategic work plan for the 2022-2024 period, adjusted to the one-year time horizon that the specific grant application requires.