This report on public access to environmental information has come at a particularly timely moment, namely the beginnings of the review of Directive 90/313/EEC which deals with this very issue. It reflects the fact that since the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty, nationals of the Member States have had citizenship of the Union itself; although this confers at present very limited rights and duties it is the germ of a future in which the citizen can look to the Union as a real polity.