Proposals on access to documents attacked

Date: 20/01/2000

By Gareth Harding

FREEDOM-of-information campaigners have attacked a planned new law on public access to EU documents as even more secretive than the current rules and a step backwards in the fight for a more open Union.

The Euro Citizen Action Service (ECAS) claims a recent draft of the long-awaited European Commission document is out of step with the Amsterdam Treaty - which commits the EU to take its decisions as openly as possible - and with recent attempts to bring glasnost to the Union's notoriously closed and confusing decision-making procedures.

The Brussels-based pressure group argues that the text, which is due to be adopted by the Commission next Wednesday (26 January), could "undermine the achievements" of the EU institutions in guaranteeing public access to documents. ECAS is particularly concerned that exempting internal papers from the rules' scope will discourage requests for documents and "drastically increase the percentage of refusals".

Under the current code of conduct on access to information, members of the public can apply for any document and ECAS estimates that 90% of requests are accepted.

It argues that this case-by-case approach has worked "reasonably well" and removing discussion papers and internal notes from the scope of the planned law would render it redundant, as few people apply for publicly-available documents.

The organisation is also protesting about the number of barriers the Commission plans to erect to prevent the public from getting hold of some documents. The draft text says that the Commission, European Parliament and Council of Ministers will be able to refuse access to papers if they undermine the protection of the public interest, the privacy of the individual, commercial and industrial secrecy and confidentiality as defined by member states.

ECAS argues that a less open administration than the present one could take advantage of the narrow scope of the draft regulation to "refuse access to practically any text", and is calling on the Commission to "radically rethink its approach".

UK civil liberties group Statewatch has also joined the attack. Tony Bunyan claimed the latest draft completely undermined "the intent and spirit of the Amsterdam Treaty" and said that if the Commission adopted the text in its current form, "the European Parliament should send it straight back as an unacceptable basis for discussion".

But a source close to Commission President Romano Prodi insisted that the final draft of the paper had addressed many of the criticisms made. Most notably, calls from the institution's legal service to exclude documents sent by outside bodies from the regulation's scope have been rejected. The new text would also allow certain internal papers, such as draft laws, to be made public.

Freedom-of-information campaigners have attacked a planned new law on public access to EU documents as even more secretive than the current rules and a step backwards in the fight for a more open Union.