S.L. 549.39 Art. 7Refusal to provide environmental information.

(1) The competent authority may, on its own behalf or on behalf of another public authority, refuse to provide the requested environmental information if:

(a) the request is manifestly unreasonable;

(b) without prejudice to the provisions of regulation 4(3), the request is formulated in too general a manner;

(c) the request concerns material in the course of completion or unfinished documents or data, provided that in this case, the competent authority shall state the name of the authority preparing the material and the estimated time needed for completion;

(d) the request concerns internal communications, taking into account the public interest served by disclosure.

(2) The competent authority may furthermore, on its own behalf or on behalf of another public authority, refuse to provide the requested environmental information if disclosure of the information would adversely affect:

(a) the confidentiality of the proceedings of public authorities, where such confidentiality is provided for by law;

(b) international relations, public security or national defence;

(c) the course of justice, the ability of any person to receive a fair trial or the ability of a public authority to conduct an enquiry of a criminal or disciplinary nature;

(d) the confidentiality of commercial or industrial information where such confidentiality is provided for by national or Community law to protect a legitimate economic interest, including the public interest in maintaining statistical confidentiality and tax secrecy;

(e) intellectual property rights;

(f) the confidentiality of personal data and, or files relating to a natural person where that person has not consented to the disclosure of the information to the public, where such confidentiality is provided for by national or Community law;

(g) the interests or protection of any person who supplied the information requested on a voluntary basis without being under, or capable of being put under, a legal obligation to do so, unless that person has consented to the release of the information concerned;

(h) the protection of the environment to which such information relates, such as the location of rare species.

(3) The grounds for refusal mentioned in subregulations (1) and (2) shall be interpreted in a restrictive way, taking into account for the particular case the public interest served by disclosure. In every particular case, the public interest served by disclosure shall be weighed against the interest served by the refusal. The competent authority may not, by virtue of subregulation (2)(a), (d), (f), (g) and (h), provide for a request to be refused where the request relates to information on emissions into the environment.

(4) Environmental information held by or for public authorities which has been requested by an applicant shall be made available in part where it is possible to separate out any information falling within the scope of subregulation (1)(c) and (d) or subregulation

(2) from the rest of the information requested.

(5) A refusal to make available all or part of the information requested shall be notified to the applicant in writing or electronically, if the request was in writing or if the applicant so requests, within the time limits referred to in regulation 4. The notification shall state the reasons for the refusal and include information on the review procedure.