Swedish
The case concerned legal standing in a permit case regarding a railway bridge. The bridge was to be built over a river in accordance with the law on the construction of railways.
The Environmental Court had given a permit in accordance with chapter 11 of the Environmental Code for the water operations needed for the construction. This decision was appealed by several individuals and non-governmental organisations and the question before the Environmental Court of Appeal was whether or not they had standing to appeal the decision.
The Environmental Court of Appeal stated that since the assessment was of chapter 2 section 9 of the Environmental Code, all effects of the bridge should be taken into account, not only the building process. Therefore damage that could occur later from the operation of the railway as a result of the bridge was also a part of the assessment. Several of the appellants owning properties close to the planned bridge risked being affected by the future operations and therefore had standing to appeal the decision.
The non-governmental organisations, however, did not have standing as they did not fulfil the criteria in chapter 16 section 12 of the Environmental Code. This was mainly because they did not have the number of members required.