Colleagues might be interested in the following message from
Statewatch.
- Support the "Call for an Open Europe"
- - freedom of information in the EU
- "Access to documents in the EU is not a "gift" from on
high to be packaged, sanitised and manipulated. It is a "right" which is
fundamental in a democracy": Tony Bunyan, Deirdre Curtin and Aidan White
in Essays for an Open
Europe
- That was in 2000, now in 2012 the right of access to
EU documents is under great threat again
- To Sign up for the "Call for an Open Europe":please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
- giving the name of your organisation with "CALL" in the subject line
and we will keep you in touch with all the developments
- EU: REGULATION ON PUBLIC ACCESS TO
DOCUMENT:
Council seeks to re-write
the definition of a "document" after 19 years: Recast
of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European
Parliament, Council and Commission documents (first reading) - Preparation
of informal trilogues (pdf). Since 1993 the definition of a
"document" has been that a: "document shall mean any content whatever its
medium" and this is in the current Regulation. However, the Council
intends to keep this general definition (Article 3) but to add Article 3a:
"Documents subject to this Regulation": which says a document becomes
subject to this Regulation (ie: the whole Regulation) when: "it has been
drawn up by an institution and either formally transmitted to one or more
recipients, submitted for filing or registration, approved by the
competent official, or otherwise completed for the purposes for which it
was intended" (emphasis added) In simple terms a "document" is only really
a "document" when it is finalised (all the drafts and discussion prior to
this are not "documents") - this is the same definition, which was widely
criticised, first put forward by the Commission in 2008. .
- The double-faced language of the Council position means
also that while it appears in Article 12 that documents concerning
legislative and non-legislative acts: "shall, subject to Articles 4 and 9,
be made directly accessible to the public" they are still subject to the
general rule in Article 3a above. It would thus negate Articles 15.1 and
15.3 para 5 of the Lisbon Treaty.
- Tony Bunyan, Statewatch Director, comments:
- " In 1997 the Amsterdam Treaty promised to "enshrine" the public's
right of access to EU documents but in 2001 we only got half the cake. If
the Council and the Commission get their way we will be left with just a
few crumbs [small fragments]. Access to documents is the life-blood of a
healthy, vibrant, democracy which encourages informed consent and dissent.
Instead the Council wants an unaccountable democracy bereft of content and
meaning."
- EU: REGULATION ON PUBLIC ACCESS TO DOCUMENT:
Statewatch challenges Council secrecy on
access to EU documents on the revision of the Regulation: Letter
from the Council refusing access to three documents concerning the
Council's discussions on revising the Regulation on access to EU
documents (pdf) in response a: Confirmatory
application by Tony Bunyan, on behalf of Statewatch (pdf)
- The Council had hidden three crucial documents and claimed that access
could not be given because 1) It would "prejudice Council's capacity to
conduct frank and candid discussions". In other words to meet in secret as
a legislature under the so-called "space to think" (under Article 4.3 of
the Regulation on acces to documents) see: The
case for the repeal of Article 4.3 2) The Council then claims that
there was an "absence of any element suggesting an overriding public
interest" in dislcosure - it is hard to think of an issue on which the
public's right to know what is being discussed manifestly outweighs the
need for secrecy. 3) The Council concludes by saying that access may to
given "after the the final adoption of the act" - subject still to Article
4.3 para 2.
- Tony Bunyan, Statewatch Director, comments:
- "The notion that the wish of a legislature to meet in secret (by
failing to release the documents being discussed) outweighs the public
interest of the citizens on such a fundamental issue, namely the right to
know what is being discussed and proposed in a legislative process in
order to know and allow for public debate, has no place in a democracy
worthy of the name."
- Statewatch has been working on access to EU documents since 1992 and
has lodged ten successful complaints against the Council of the European
Union (the EU governments) and the European Commission. Statewatch
maintain extensive background information on a series of Observatories:
- - Observatory:
the Regulation on access to EU documents: 2008-ongoing (All the
latest News and documents on the current negotiations on the revision of
the Regulation
- - FOI in the EU -
with all the developments
- - Secret Europe -
reporting on secrecy and openness in the EU (historical archive)
- - Observatory on
public access to EU documents: on the struggles
between 1999-2001
- - Key
texts
- - Analyses
and critiques
- To Sign up for the "Call for an Open Europe":please send an e-mail
to: [log in to unmask]
- giving the name of your organisation with "CALL" in the subject line
and we will keep you in touch with all the
developments
________________________________________________
Statewatch: Monitoring the
state and civil liberties in Europe
PO Box 1516, London, N16 0EW. UK
tel:
+44(0)20-8802-1882; fax:
+44(0)20-8880-1727
http://www.statewatch.org
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