Criticism against the Västra Götaland County Administrative Board for failure to make a decision in a remitted decision

The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency revoked a County Administrative Board’s decision to approve a moose management plan and remitted the decision for new processing. The County Administrative Board assessed that a moose management team needed to give its consent to amendments to the moose management plan in order for the remitted case to be decided on. The team did not provide this consent. As a result, the County Administrative Board did not make a decision in the case.

JO is not commenting on whether the moose management team’s consent was necessary or not. Even if the County Administrative Board assessed that it was required, JO finds that it was wrong of them not to make a decision in the case. JO states that if a consensus could not be reached within the team on how the plan should be amended, a request for an approval of the plan should have been rejected. The County Administrative Board is criticized for failing to make a decision in the case.