Developments in European information issues: Networks and relays – Services – Products, June 2002

OLAF

OLAF, the European Anti-Fraud Office, has launched its new web site at http://europa.eu.int/comm/anti_fraud/index_en.html. The new site seeks to promote the mission of the organisation - “ to protect the interests of the European Union, to fight fraud, corruption and any other irregular activity, including misconduct within the European Institutions” - and to offer more interactive services. It also points to the national investigative partners with which OLAF collaborates. Sections covered by the web site include: details of staff, including an organisational chart, reports, press information, publications, EC budget information, and external links. The Press Room area offers not just press releases but also photographs and other audio-visual material which can be downloaded. Reports available in full text via the site include not only OLAF's annual report on operational activities, but also others such as the Commission's report on the protection of the euro against counterfeiting, the annual report of the Court of Auditors, and that of the European Ombudsman on the investigation of complaints of EU maladministration. Besides the green paper for consultation on the establishment of a European public prosecutor, the publications section is currently thin with only recent issues of AGON Magazine, the quarterly magazine of lawyers for the protection of the financial interests of the European Communities, but other additions are planned. The links section provides quick access to the partner organisations with which OLAF works in the member states and international organisations such as Europol (http://www.europol.eu.int/), the EU law enforcement organisation dealing with criminal intelligence. And if you have any intelligence about fraud to pass on, you can use the free phone numbers in each member state to inform the Office - full details on the web site!

EP site map and index

The European Parliament has updated the alphabetical index of its web site and produced a new site map to help users find their way around. Visit http://www.europarl.eu.int/index/alpha_en.htm or http://www.europarl.eu.int/guide/sitemap_en.htm/ to see the developments. These should be useful additional navigation aids for a site which is increasingly rich in content.

Commission and Parliament Registers

Under Regulation 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents, the operational deadline for a public register of documents for each of the institutions is 3 June 2002. The Council Register at http://register.consilium.eu.int/utfregister/frames/introfsEN.htm has been live now for some time and lists documents from 1 January 1999. The Commission and the European Parliament are sailing closer to the deadline but they should be ready to go public by the due date.

At the time of writing test versions can be viewed on their web sites. The Commission's Openness and Access to Documents page at http://europa.eu.int/comm/secretariat_general/sgc/acc_doc/index_en.htm provides a link to the Commission's Register of internal and preparatory documents, though currently it goes to the French introductory screen. However the English version can be viewed by changing the language code in the URL from CL=fr to CL=en. Searches can be made by document number, date or words in title. Where the list of results contains published documents, there is a direct link to the full text in EUR-Lex. For internal documents, there is guidance on how to request them, though of course no guarantee that they will be provided.

The Openness web site also contains a collection of related material about access to documents, including the Citizen's guide, relevant legislation, links to the Registers of the European Parliament and the Council, information on the rules in member states and background material. The Registers page includes also the Presidents register of correspondence, lists information sources on the work of the Commission and links to public versions of texts through the decision-making stage to adopted legislation. Additionally it offers links to the reports of developments in the Bulletin of the European Union and the General Report on the Activities of the EU, and to the Historical Archives.

The European Parliament's sister site, currently accessible at http://www4.europarl.eu.int/registre/recherche/Menu.cfm?langue=EN is not yet fully functioning. While the links on the main page to the Commission's and the Council's Registers are in place, the “Request a document” link and “Information about document access” are not yet working. The important part however - the search facility - is live and has both a simple and an advanced option. The simple search has the following fields: reference, words in title, document type, author, and document date. Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT can be used and help is available. The advanced search has additional fields but the same basic structure and layout. Links to the text are given from the results summary where available. For other material, the “Request a document” link is live on this screen and allows enquirers to submit their requests online. The opening up of these two registers is a further major step in simplifying access to documents and improving openness and transparency. It will be interesting to follow how well the process works when it is fully functioning.