The right to a healthy environment as an EU normative response to covid-19. A theoretical framework

The COVID-19 pandemic represents the umpteenth reason to establish a right to a healthy environment, still uncodified under EU law. Therefore, this contribution proposes an innovative theoretical framework that revolves mainly around the interpretative role of the European Court of Justice (CJEU) and Article 6.3 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU). Accordingly, an EU right to a healthy environment might be established on a threefold basis: first, this fundamental right has been already embedded in the vast majority of EU Member States’ constitutions or it has been ascertained by their constitutional courts. It is therefore argued that it constitutes a tradition common to the Member States. Second, it complies with the purposes, values and principles set out in the EU founding treaties, and it emerges as essential component to the fulfilling of the Union’s secondary legislation on the environment. third, its formulation is also supported by international and regional sources of law as required by the case law of the Court of Justice.