Nuclear case - still no access to details of the damage reduction process in the Paks Nuclear Plant

The Capital Court of Appeal has made a decision on 20 April about the lawsuit of Energy Club and National Atomic Energy Agency’s Nuclear Safety Directorate (NAEA-NSD) in the second instance court. The judiciary overruled the judgement of the first instance court and ordered to initiate a new proceeding. In the lawsuit HCLU represents the suitor. The appeal does not lie against this decision which is, though favourable, still does not result the access to the demanded data.

The court rejected the explanation of court of first instance according to which the the claim was not specific enough and can be refused by the Aarhus Convention. Quite important that in this decision the claimed enviromental data is considered and emphasised being a public interest data according to the very law on privacy and access to public interest data.

The defendant has to present its evidences in during the encored proceeding since the court of first instance did not evaluated them. According to the very rule the data processing institution has to verify the reasons of denial, the court of second instance does not practice verification. Experts are justified to get involved in such a process in order to allocate the data counting as trade secret.

The court underlined that in a public interest access case the defendant cannot refer to reasons (such as national security interests) that did not even exist when refusing the requested data.

The case continues at the Metropolitan Court of Budapest following the orders of the Capital Court of Appeal.

 

Share

Related articles

HCLU called OGP to investigate the situation in Hungary

Last fall, the Open Government Partnership (OGP) adopted a new policy to help re-establish an environment for government and civil society collaboration, safeguarding the Open Government Declaration and to mitigate reputational risks to OGP. Today, members of Hungarian civil society, including representatives of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, Transparency International Hungary and K-Monitor, as well as Sunlight’s international policy manager, a former employee of K-Monitor, called on the OGP Steering Committee to take action under the new policy and launch a thorough investigation into the situation in Hungary, with a special attention to the deterioration of the space for civil society.

Draft law on data protection and freedom of information

The draft law – currently before the Parliament – on Data Protection and Freedom of Information will replace the independent Data Protection and Freedom of Information Commissioner with an administrative authority. This change will seriously diminish the level of privacy protection and weaken the right to access to information in Hungary.

There is No Effective Control Over National Security - Three Civil Organizations File Complaints with the Constitutional Court

The Eötvös Károly Institute, the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, and Transparency International Hungary seek to jointly challenge the new Act on the protection of classified information, promulgated on April 1st, and several provisions of the Act on national security before the Constitutional Court.