What is happening

The Commission’s proposal, dated 30 September and published on 4 November 2025, asks the Council to establish the position the EU should take on draft decision VIII/8e about EU compliance with the Aarhus ConventionA multilateral environmental agreement covering access to environmental information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice.. It is a proposed Council decision, not an adopted EU position.²¹

The Aarhus Convention is a multilateral environmental agreement covering environmental information, public participation and access to justiceIn the State aid case, the ability of members of the public to use administrative or court procedures to challenge specified Commission decisions alleged to conflict with EU environmental law.. Its Compliance Committee reviews whether parties meet their obligations. The Meeting of the PartiesThe gathering of Convention parties, held every four years, that considers compliance findings and may endorse them. then considers the committee’s findings; the Commission says endorsed findings become an official interpretation binding on the Convention’s parties and bodies.²

The proposal covers exactly four cases: access to procedures for challenging final Commission State aid decisions under Article 108(2) TFEU that allegedly conflict with EU environmental law; participation in national energy and climate plans; participation in selecting designated energy projects called Projects of Common Interest; and participation when industrial-emissions permit conditions are reconsidered or updated.²

Why it matters

For the first category, the Commission introduced a procedure in May 2025 through which an internal review of specified State aid decisions can be requested. In the industrial-emissions case, EU rules were amended on public participation when permit conditions change. Draft Compliance Committee reports described in the proposal conclude that the EU has met the requirements in these two cases.²

For national energy and climate plans, the committee’s draft report found compliance on transparent and fair arrangements, early participation while options remain open, and taking account of public input. It considered that the public still lacked necessary information in part of the process. For Projects of Common Interest, the draft report found requirements not fully met, while the Commission asks the parties to recognise improvements including open meetings and central project websites linked to translated documents.²

What happens next

In its proposal, the Commission asked the Council to establish the EU position and said the Convention parties were to consider draft decision VIII/8e at their eighth session on 17–19 November 2025. The parties generally decide by consensus; if those efforts fail, substantive decisions can pass with a three-quarters majority of parties present and voting.²