Confidential report now open to all

Date: 24/10/1996

By Rory Watson

RARELY has the status of an internal EU document changed so quickly.

Just three months ago, the Council of Ministers' report on its experience of handling public requests for access to its internal documents was classified as confidential. Now it is available on demand.

The contents of the 18-page document have not changed. In July, a minority of EU governments blocked the report's release and opposition towards this gesture of Union transparency still exists.

What has changed is a realisation among EU governments that, under the very rules which they put in place to operate the system, they would have had to hand over the paper to any tenacious member of the public.

According to the Council's own procedures, a request for an internal document may be refused by its general secretariat. But anyone with the stamina and determination has a right of appeal and can lodge a second “confirmatory application”. This is handled by EU governments themselves and needs only a simple majority for the request to be granted.

With at least 12 member states in favour of making the report available - and only Germany, Luxembourg and Portugal apparently opposed - the Council has bowed to the inevitable.

The only condition attached to its new status is that it will be made clear to any recipient that the report is not binding on EU member states and reflects only the views of the Council's general secretariat on the way the policy is working.

Despite arguments over confidentiality, the facility is in little demand. As the report notes somewhat sanguinely: “The geographical and occupational breakdown of applicants demonstrates that the policy of public access to documents is little used or unused in some member states, nor is it widely used in sectors other than journalism, the law and higher education.”