Overcoming Plaumann in EU environmental litigation : an analysis of NGOs legal arguments in actions for annulment

Abstract

This article focuses on the judicial means used by environmental non-governmental organisations (ENGOs) to overcome the Plaumann test, the particularly narrow scrutiny used by the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) to grant direct access in actions for annulment to private applicants. In spite of the major changes that have occurred in the EU legal order in the last decades (e.g. the adhesion of the EU to the Aarhus Convention, the adoption of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty), the Court has never amended its test. Therefore, the ultimate goal of this contribution is to highlight the arguments that ENGOs have generally used to mobilise to CJEU with regard to Plaumann and to reflect on how these arguments have evolved on the basis of an equally evolving EU legal system.