In democratic countries well developed economically, the right to information has been applied for some time. Legal rules regulating this right can be divided into two groups. The first one is applied in countries having a wide range of basic legal regulations of free access to information within the framework of which it is possible to obtain also information on the environment (e.g. USA, Canada, the Netherlands). The second group of legal rules is applied in countries having a special law concerning the right for access to information on the environment (e.g. Austria, Germany). The article examines the effort to integrate the right for access to information on the environment within the framework of the European Union Directive of the Council No. 90/313/EEC on free access to information on the environment. It was also used for making legal amendments concerning the access to environment information in Austria, Germany and the Netherlands. For the purposes of comparison legal systems valid in the USA and Canada also are mentioned.