Court rules against Dutch demand for greater access to EU information

Date: 02/05/1996

THE Dutch government will step up its efforts to include a specific right to access of information in the revised Maastricht Treaty after losing a two-year legal battle to lift some of the secrecy surrounding EU ministerial decisions.

“What we need is a good basis in the treaty for the right of citizens to have access to information about what is going on here,” said a Dutch spokesman this week.

The Netherlands had argued unsuccessfully that new Council of Ministers' concessions granting public access to certain documents were too restrictive.

They maintained that this fundamental right should have been set out in proper Union legislation, complete with the necessary safeguards, and not introduced under the Council's own rules as if it were purely a matter of internal organisation.

The decision by ministers in December 1993 to grant the public access to documents listed a number of grounds on which such requests could be refused. These include protection of the public interest, personal privacy, industrial secrecy, the Union's financial interests and confidentiality of sources.

But the European Court of Justice rejected the Dutch arguments this week. It ruled that in the absence of general EU legislation, Union institutions should take the necessary measures to handle requests for documents “in conformity with the interests of good administration”.

The Dutch were supported in their legal challenge by MEPs, who were excluded from the ministerial decision, while the case was defended by the Council, the Commission and the French government.