Reference to EU court over legality of environmental information access charges under recent Aarhus Convention developments

The High Court considered an appeal by an environmental group against a decision upholding a €15 charge for providing access to environmental information by a statutory forestry company. The appellant argued that the charge was unlawful, both under EU law following the Moldova decision via the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee, and under the principle of equivalence with Irish freedom of information law. The court determined that both the Moldova ground and the equivalence ground raised significant questions of EU law that warranted a reference to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). The judge ordered that two key questions be referred to the CJEU for guidance on whether such charges are permissible in light of recent international developments and the comparative domestic legal regime for access to information. All other preliminary objections relating to admissibility of grounds and entitlement to relief were either not pressed or resolved in favour of the appellant, with costs reserved.