Due to the mushrooming of battery factories and processing plants in recent years, residents of many settlements have felt that these facilities operate in an environmentally harmful way without control.
There are three tools we can use as citizens: community cooperation, amplifying issues, and exercising our rights. When applied together, we can act for change more effectively. Yet, many active citizens have experienced the feeling that it "doesn't work," their voice isn't heard, and there is no solution to unlawful practices.
Against companies that carefully fortify themselves, many communities might have simply given up, thinking: "our small local case won't interest others, and as David, we cannot compete with Goliath." In the case of battery factories, however, this is not what happened: the Atlatszo Foundation investigated the cases and amplified them, helping those affected to unite and local civil organizations to form a network.
Battery factories bring complex challenges: they burden the soil, impact water management and waste management, and even affect municipal operations. Moreover, this is a new phenomenon, so there is little accumulated knowledge about their dangers. One community might have a water expert, another a legal expert, but no single place has all the knowledge.
This is where AKÁRTEIS (Alliance for Justice for Settlements Affected by Batteries) provides immense help, uniting 16 organizations and numerous experts to facilitate the sharing of specific professional knowledge and local experiences. This is particularly important today, as some factories have operated for years while others are just being planned. Thanks to the network, this becomes collective knowledge. While they don't win every lawsuit, they have seen increasing success (e.g., in Ács and Göd).
Atlatszo regularly investigated investments, producing more than 50 related articles and videos that were often picked up by the national press. They reached nearly 800,000 people, making the environmental dangers of battery factories widely known.
The initiative proved that local difficulties are more manageable if we connect with other communities facing similar challenges. One case might get lost in the media noise, but by teaming up with the press and using good communication, local organizations can reach wide layers of society and shape public discourse. The example of AKÁRTEIS shows that we must not give up: encourage people to exercise their rights—request public data, launch lawsuits, and follow through—because David does have a chance against Goliath.
Since 2013, the Atlatszo Foundation has supported investigative journalism in matters related to the exercise of public power, the use of public funds, and the protection of fundamental rights. Each year, they publish hundreds of investigative reports on atlatszo.hu and operate kimittud.hu, a platform where anyone can file freedom of information (FOI) requests—a service that has been utilized more than 20,000 times to date. Following the publication of their articles, concrete measures and investigations have been initiated by state agencies, authorities, and politicians on numerous occasions at local, national, and EU levels alike.
