BeLIFE Project
The BeLIFE project focuses on the role citizens and civil society can play in enforcing and ensuring compliance with European Environmental Law, particularly the European Green Deal.
The main objective of the project is to enhance compliance with EU environmental and climate law and to strengthen environmental democracy rights. The European Green Deal has introduced numerous new and updated laws, raising the standards of environmental and climate protection across Europe, however, implementation of the EU’s environmental law remains a huge challenge. This project aims to facilitate private compliance assurance and enforcement. By providing individuals and NGOs with the tools to access justice, enforce their rights to environmental information, and participate in environmental decision-making, the project will bolster environmental governance across Europe. These tools are rooted in the environmental democracy rights enshrined in the UN Aarhus Convention, which the EU and all its Member States have adopted.
Rather than focusing on compliance with a single aspect of environmental and climate law, the project aims to make a horizontal contribution to compliance with the whole European Green Deal. The project is based on the belief that empowered individuals and civil society will exercise their environmental democracy rights to ensure better compliance with EU environmental and climate law. It aims to influence the “rules of the game” and empower people to use the law to benefit the environment and climate.
It will aim to improve the available resources on environmental democracy rights, to build capacity of environmental and climate defenders, and to improve the quality of environmental rights complaints.
The consortium is made up of four Pan-European environmental NGOs each representing vast networks of NGOs: in addition to the EEB, Youth and Environment Europe (YEE), Justice and Environment (J&E) and Guta Environmental Law Association. The project will run from 2024-2027.
New: Environmental Rights Report
This report explores how environmental rights can be claimed and enforced within the EU, with a particular focus on procedural rights linked to environmental democracy. Drawing on findings from the Environmental Implementation Reviews, it assesses the impact of the European Green Deal on these rights and identifies key obligations that create opportunities for public participation, access to justice, and access to environmental information. The report also connects these EU-level developments with the global recognition of the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment at the United Nations level.
New: Report on the needs and challenges of environmental defenders
In Autumn 2024, the BE LIFE project launched a consultation to better understand what risks environmental and climate defenders, especially youth, face in Europe, and what resources they are most in need of. The aim was to collect data from a wide spectrum of environmental and climate defenders from EU Member States. Combined with the other project activities, the newly acquired knowledge will be turned into clear policy recommendations for the EU and suggestions for civil society.
The BeLife project has received funding from the European Union’s LIFE programme.
The information and views set out on the project website are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the European Union.
