Article 27

1. Member States shall ensure that, in accordance with their national legal system, members of the public concerned have access to a review procedure before a court of law, or another independent and impartial body established by law, to challenge the substantive or procedural legality of all decisions, acts or omissions by Member States concerning the location and number of sampling points under Article 9 in accordance with the relevant criteria laid down in Annexes III and IV, air quality plans and air quality roadmaps referred to in Article 19, and short-term action plans referred to in Article 20, of the Member State, provided that any of the following conditions is met: they have a sufficient interest; they maintain the impairment of a right, where administrative procedural law of a Member State requires this as a precondition. Member States shall determine what constitutes a sufficient interest and impairment of a right consistently with the objective of giving the public concerned wide access to justice. To that end, the interest of any non-governmental organisation that promotes the protection of human health or the environment and meeting any requirements under national law shall be deemed sufficient for the purposes of the first subparagraph, point (a). Such organisations shall also be deemed to have rights capable of being impaired for the purposes of the first subparagraph, point (b). 2. The review procedure shall be fair, equitable, timely and not prohibitively expensive, and shall provide adequate and effective redress mechanisms, including injunctive relief as appropriate. 3. Member States shall determine the stage at which decisions, acts or omissions may be challenged, such that access to a review procedure before a court of law or another independent and impartial body established by law, is not rendered impossible or excessively difficult. 4. This Article does not prevent Member States from requiring a preliminary review procedure before an administrative authority and does not affect the requirement of exhaustion of administrative review procedures prior to recourse to judicial review procedures, where such a requirement exists under national law. 5. Member States shall ensure that practical information is made available to the public on access to administrative and judicial review procedures referred to in this Article.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-10-16 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.