Environment Information Act.

The purpose of the present Act is to transpose the Directive 2003/4/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on public access to environmental information and repealing Council Directive 90/313/EEC of 28 January 2003 into German law. In particular, the Act is to ensure free access to the information on the environment possessed by authorities and the diffusion of this information, as well as to lay down the fundamental prerequisites according to which information of this nature is to be made available. Article 3 contains the definition of certain terms such as "Authority" and "information about the environment , measures or activities . The text consists of 14 articles divided into 5 Parts as follows: General provisions (1); Access to information upon application (2); Reasons to decline an application (3); Diffusion of information on the environment (4); Final provisions (5).