The Friends of the Earth Case
European Court of Justice
[2011] EUECJ C-115/09
The Arnsberg District Administration (defendant) granted a permit for a coal power station; the Nordrhein-Westfalen branch of Friends of the Earth (plaintiff) sued in German court to invalidate the permit, invoking the Aarhus Convention, which the EU had approved and which bars national laws from blocking environmental groups from challenging permits with significant environmental effects. German law protected only the general public's interests, not individual or organizational standing, and the German court believed this restriction might conflict with the Aarhus Convention, referring the question to the European Court of Justice.
Whether a nongovernmental environmental organization may rely on EU law to challenge a local building permit on environmental grounds, even when national law limits standing to the general public.