Supreme Court Puts State under Obligation to Provide Healthy Environment

The Supreme Court has put the state under the obligation to provide a healthy environment, including clean air and water. If it fails to comply, every citizen will be able to sue institutions.

Judges, at a public session on Tuesday, adopted a principled legal opinion obliging the state to provide a healthy environment, as the Constitution itself foresees.

The case reached the Court following an initiative of lawyers based in Ohrid through whom citizens had filed suits over the matter, but ended up being rejected by the Administrative Court.

At Tuesday’s session, retired university professor Borce Davitkovski said the judicial power had to stand in the defence of citizen rights and interests. In his view, there cannot be insistence on individual acts, as interpreted by the Administrative Court.