Ombudsman wins victory for public in openness battle

Date: 28/01/1999

By Rory Watson

NEW light is about to be shed on the secretive world of EU policy-making in the highly sensitive area of justice and home affairs.

Under pressure from European Ombudsman Jacob Söderman, the Council of Ministers has agreed to provide updated lists of all measures which EU governments have taken on immigration, asylum, crime and judicial cooperation on civil and criminal matters to any member of the public who asks for them.

The move comes just days before the deadline set by Söderman for the Council to respond to his call for greater openness. In their reply, EU governments will pledge to implement his suggestions in full.

The Council's letter will explain that it intends to make available to the public the monthly inventory of "all acts" adopted by member states which it began drawing up at the start of this year.

The first section of this inventory deals with legislation approved by the Council, while the second will cover other measures, including those in the justice and home affairs area. The list will be updated monthly and will complement the Council's justice and home affairs database on the Internet.

The Ombudsman's call for action followed complaints from British journalist Tony Bunyan, who has long campaigned for the Council to provide details of measures agreed in the politically sensitive field of justice and home affairs.

When he first approached the Council for information, he was told that such a list did not exist, even though a compendium of legislative acts in other areas of EU activity is published regularly.

"We do not know what has been decided, citizens do not know and the applicant countries do not know," said Bunyan. "They publish a report, but only in December. Can you imagine a national parliament which cannot tell you until the end of the year what measures it has taken?"

He argued that tracking down decisions taken in the justice and home affairs field was often an almost impossible task, given the complexity of many of the issues involved.

In response to his complaints, the Ombudsman contacted the Council suggesting that keeping a list of decisions taken would be a good idea, not least because of the need for a public authority to maintain adequate records, and arguing that this should be made available to the public. He warned that failing to maintain an up-to-date record of decisions could be seen as a case of maladministration.

After first denying that such a list existed, the Council later admitted that it did, prompting Söderman to set a three-month deadline for it to be handed over to Bunyan.

"The Ombudsman reasoned that if there is a list, that list is a document and so the Council of Ministers should be prepared to give access to that document in accordance with the rules on public access to documents," explained a member of Söderman's staff.

Council has agreed to provide updated lists of all JHA matters to any member of the public who asks for them.