Free Access to Environmental Public Information

According to the law, entities and individuals have free access to public environmental information. In principle, access to information is free of charge except for the printing costs incurred in order to deliver the information to the solicitant.

Notwithstanding the above, Law No 25,831 determines that in no case such costs may impair the exercise of the right of all inhabitants to have access to environmental information.

On the other hand, no legitimate interest or reason is required in order to access environmental information.

Law No 25,831 orders the national, provincial and the authorities of the City of Buenos Aires to adopt the environmental information access procedures within the competence of the Consejo Federal de Medio Ambiente (Federal Environmental Council).

National, provincial and the authorities of the City of Buenos Aires, and companies rendering public services, whether public or of mixed capital, are included among the persons and entities obliged to supply environmental information.

A request for environmental information may only be denied in the following cases:

a) when national defence, safety and international relations may be affected;

b) when the information requested is subject to consideration by judicial authorities, in any procedural stage, and its publication or use by third parties may damage the normal development of the judicial proceedings;

c) when a commercial secret or intellectual property may be affected;

d) when the confidentiality of personal data may be affected;

e) when the information requested corresponds to works of scientific investigation and such works have not been published yet;

f) when the purpose of the information request cannot be determined due to missing or imprecise data;

g) when the requested information is classified as secret or confidential pursuant to the applicable law and regulation.

In relation to the term for the resolution of the environmental information requests, the law establishes a 30 working day term counted as of the date the information request is filed with the competent authority or public service company.

According to Law No 25,381, obstruction, falsification, concealment or lack of response within the due term mentioned above or unjustified denial of response of an information request and, every act, omission, that without justified cause, affects the regular exercise of the right to access environmental information shall be considered as breach to Law No 25,381.

Companies rendering public services that do not comply with the obligation to provide environmental information, shall be subject to the penalties included in the contracts and regulations that control the concession of the corresponding public service, without prejudice of the civil and penal liabilities that may correspond.

Finally, Law No 25,831 establishes that it must be regulated within 90 days counted as of its enactment.