Appeal to the Transparency and Good Governance Council: A Challenge Applicable to Access to Environmental Information?

The application of Additional Provision 1(a) of Act 19/2013, of 9 December, on Transparency, Access to Public Information and Good Governance, in relation to access to environmental information, leads to the prevailing application of the specific legislation in force on this issue (Act 27/2006, of 18 July, which regulates the rights of access to information, public participation and access to justice in environmental matters) on the general system of the right to public information laid down by Act 19/2013, which is applied as an additional applicable law and only to areas not specifically covered in the aforementioned legislation. This provision raises some doubts with regard to the legal system applicable to certain aspects of access to environmental information. This paper examines one of them, specifically, whether an appeal to the Transparency and Good Governance Council is applicable in this area. In the absence of case law, it critically analyses the legal rulings issued on this question by the Transparency and Good Governance Council during its first year of operation and offers a different interpretation.