Citizen participation - a key task of the Vienna Ombuds Office for Environmental Protection

The need for citizens to be involved in projects and plans significantly affecting their living environment and quality of life has become a basic principle of the legal system in modern democracies. For citizen participation to be effective, the citizen’s interests should be defined as clearly as possible, and should be taken into account at the earliest possible stage. The smaller the group of citizens affected, the easier it will be to take account of their interests.

The Ombuds Office is involved in a number of highly complex citizen participation processes. In most cases, a large number of parties and individuals is affected, such as in the Vienna International Airport mediation procedure. The more complex the process, the more difficult it is to reach a consensus and binding agreements between the parties. Moderated consultation often provides an effective way of taking into account citizens’ interests.

Citizens are experts

The Ombuds Office respects citizens as experts on their own living environment, whose expertise is quite different from the Ombuds Office’s, and may contribute to different aspects.
It is the Ombuds Office’s task to focus on the objective environmental impact of a given measure on the population of Vienna, and on environmental quality beyond the city limits. Its work is supported by NGOs and by partners representing local interests.

The Ombuds Office welcomes the fact that Citizens’ Initiatives and NGOs, which represent the informed public, as well as ombudspersons for environmental protection are entitled to assume party status (locus standi) in environmental impact assessments, and fulfil supplementary functions in mediation procedures and strategic environmental assessments.