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Some years ago, the Netherlands was regarded as a leading country in terms of transparency and access to government information. The Government Information (Public Access) Act (WOB, Wet openbaarheid van bestuur) came into force in 1980. Since then, many countries have introduced freedom-of-information legislation, and there are doubts as to whether practice and legislation in the Netherlands still meet present-day requirements with regard to transparency and access to information. The Netherlands has fallen behind in comparison with other countries that have recently introduced a Freedom of Information Act. 1 This chapter starts with a summary of information legislation in the Netherlands (Sect. 2) and provides information about the number of applications for the disclosure of documents (Sect. 3). Access to information

Environmental law originally developed in a fragmented way (sectoral legislation protecting water, soil or air). This fragmented approach towards environmental protection caused problems. Citizens and businesses applying for a permit are confronted with a range of procedures with a variety of different time limits, assessment criteria and legal remedies. Comparative law research shows that the integration of legislation in the field of environmental law is a growing trend. Policymakers feel the necessity to integrate decision-making in order to optimise the protection of the environment. The first part of this article contains a brief overview of the concept of an integrated process for the granting of environmental permits. The second part discusses the idea of environmental model 4 permit, which has been but forward in the Netherlands. It is questionable if this specific concept of integrated environmental permitting can be achieved within the constraints of Dutch administrative law.

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Environmental standards should not be a hindrance for economically relevant projectsespecially in the fields of sustainability and green energy.