Pat Swords writes with news of his attempt to have the Irish government's renewables plans deemed illegal under the terms of the Aarhus Convention.

Readers will probably remember that the Compliance Committee overseeing the convention has ruled that Irish government is out of line. This decision will now go to a Meeting of the Parties to the convention:

The Meeting of the Parties (MoP) is when the 45 or so of the countries which have ratified the Convention come to a Treaty conference, which is held every three years. Currently plans are in place for the coming one in June 2014, such that each country has to prepare an implementation report. From a legal perspective, if/when the MoP endorses the Compliance Committee's findings it is then a recognised treaty violation. In EU law, the breach of a treaty which has been ratified by the EU is automatically recognised as a breach of EU law. It is the same as a ruling of non-compliance in the European Court of Justice.

Meanwhile, the court action against the Irish government has taken a surprising turn:

The Irish State's Statement of Defence is now in finally and it is denying everything, including that it did not comply with Article 7 of the Convention, even though the Compliance Committee ruled that it blatantly did.