Justice and Environment Work Plan 2024

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.

Objectives

J&E supports the implementation and enforcement of EU legislation through the use of European law and the exchange of information. Having more than one and a half decades of experience in doing that, we will in 2024 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, such as 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.