Democrazia ambientale ed eccezioni al diritto fondamentale di accesso alle informazioni detenute dagli organi dell'Unione europea

In the European Union, environmental democracy is to a large extent realised through the right of the general public to access documents and information held by EU bodies in environmental matters. Even though the matter is ruled by the ‘widest possible access’ principle, a recent increase in presumptions of confidentiality and still existing difficulties in establishing when there is an overriding public interest in disclosure rather seem to favour some secrecy than openness. Therefore, this paper aims to answer the question whether the EU regime on access to documents and information in environmental matters is genuinely democratic or not.