Campaigner rejects case for secrecy

Date: 24/07/1997

By Leyla Linton

THE man at the centre of an investigation by the EU Ombudsman into the Council of Ministers' handling of requests for access to Union documents has poured scorn on the latter's response to his complaints.

Tony Bunyan, editor of the civil rights newsletter Statewatch, said the Council's explanation of why it turned down his requests for copies of documents relating to justice and home affairs issues was incomplete and accused it of "trying to defend the indefensible".

His attack comes just weeks after the Council performed an about-turn by reversing its earlier decision not to cooperate with EU Ombudsman Jacob Söderman's investigation into the case.

Initially, Council officials argued that the complaint was outside Söderman's remit, but they eventually bowed to his request for more information about their reasons for turning down Bunyan's requests.

In a letter to the Ombudsman, the Council maintains that it acted correctly in denying Statewatch access to documents, on the grounds that Bunyan was making "repeat applications" because his requests were all in the same field. It describes him as regularly and systematically applying over a period of time for a large number of documents.

But Bunyan, who lodged six related complaints with Söderman, does not accept this, stressing that all his requests were for different documents and arguing that therefore this was not a reasonable justification for failing to hand them over.

He is also still unhappy with the Council's failure to give specific reasons for denying him access to particular documents.

Bunyan will deliver his formal response to the Council's letter to the Ombudsman by the end of September and will, in particular, ask Söderman to rule on the meaning of a "repeat application".