Press Release: Commission adopts proposed regulation on public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents

The European Commission adopted proposals 26.1.00 aimed at ensuring the greatest possible public access to the documents of the European Union institutions. The proposals have been based on an assessment of best practice in all EU Member States, as well as on the Commission's experience of its own code on access to documents, in operation since 1994. The proposals represent a significant advance on the existing codes operating in the different institutions. Incoming documents, presently excluded from the code on access, will in future be covered by the Regulation. In a further break with current practice, a failure on the part of the Commission to reply within the set deadline on appeal against a negative decision will in principle grant access to the document in question.

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