Article 12Request for action

1.

Natural or legal persons:

(a)

affected or likely to be affected by environmental damage or

(b)

having a sufficient interest in environmental decision making relating to the damage or, alternatively,

(c)

alleging the impairment of a right, where administrative procedural law of a Member State requires this as a precondition,

shall be entitled to submit to the competent authority any observations relating to instances of environmental damage or an imminent threat of such damage of which they are aware and shall be entitled to request the competent authority to take action under this Directive.

What constitutes a ‘sufficient interest’ and ‘impairment of a right’ shall be determined by the Member States.

To this end, the interest of any non-governmental organisation promoting environmental protection and meeting any requirements under national law shall be deemed sufficient for the purpose of subparagraph (b). Such organisations shall also be deemed to have rights capable of being impaired for the purpose of subparagraph (c).

2.

The request for action shall be accompanied by the relevant information and data supporting the observations submitted in relation to the environmental damage in question.

3.

Where the request for action and the accompanying observations show in a plausible manner that environmental damage exists, the competent authority shall consider any such observations and requests for action. In such circumstances the competent authority shall give the relevant operator an opportunity to make his views known with respect to the request for action and the accompanying observations.

4.

The competent authority shall, as soon as possible and in any case in accordance with the relevant provisions of national law, inform the persons referred to in paragraph 1, which submitted observations to the authority, of its decision to accede to or refuse the request for action and shall provide the reasons for it.

5.

Member States may decide not to apply paragraphs 1 and 4 to cases of imminent threat of damage.