The Council of Europe has been criticised for missing an opportunity to legally protect the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL).

The Council of Europe gathered for a Committee of Ministers meeting in Luxembourg on 13 May to advance the need for coordinated action to protect the environment, as agreed during the Summit of Europe in Reykjavík in May 2023. However, at a time when Europeans are increasingly affected by the triple planetary crisis of pollution, climate change, and biodiversity loss, States refused to act upon the call by parliamentarians, academics, and civil society to take decisive action to legally protect the right to a healthy environment.

Sebastien Duyck, CIEL’s senior attorney, said: “It’s outrageous that in 2025, Europe still hasn’t legally recognised the right to a healthy environment as a basic human right. Throughout the ministerial negotiations, Switzerland and Norway led the opposition to progress for over 500 million people, ignoring mounting evidence of environmental harms and their devastating impacts on lives and livelihoods. Europe should be leading, not lagging, when it comes to human rights.”

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