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Although the environmental field would seem to favor transparency and democracy, relevant legal instruments, and the major principles in particular, have only been introduced relatively recently. The same applies to practical measures such as public consultation and debate, which have now seen significant progress with France’s Grenelle environmental lawmaking process. However, participatory processes in the environmental field suffer from various weaknesses, particularly concerning the procedures (which can be criticized from many points of view) and the lack of stakeholder involvement. There are even negative tendencies, with the processes frequently being usurped by a minority of interest groups or experts. This means these procedures diverge from traditional decision-making procedures, and the resulting policies are therefore ineffective.