EU accused of ‘stitch-up’ over secrecy

Date: 29/04/1999

By Rory Watson

CIVIL liberty campaigners are accusing key EU institutions of violating the Amsterdam Treaty by trying to restrict public access to their internal documents.

The proposals, now being examined by the European Commission, Parliament and Council of Ministers, would create two categories of papers.

The first would be available on request to outsiders, while the second, consisting of working documents for internal use only, would remain confidential.

It is also being suggested that any EU institution should be allowed to refuse to release a document until the particular decision-making process to which it was related had been completed. This delay in giving the public access to certain papers would "ensure that their premature dissemination does not cause resentment and damage the Union's interests", according to an internal Com-mission report.

But the proposals have been heavily criticised by the London-based civil liberties organisation Statewatch, which has played a leading role in the campaign to open up the EU's decision-making process.

" These proposals would set the clock back and reimpose the secrecy of the pre-Maastricht days. They have no place in a democracy," complained Tony Bunyan, editor of Statewatch. "They have all the hallmarks of a Brussels stitch-up."

Critics of the proposed restrictions maintain that they totally ignore the terms of the Amsterdam Treaty, which comes into force this Saturday (1 May). This stipulates that, subject to certain exemptions on grounds of public or private interest, any citizen of the Union shall have a right of access to documents from the Council, Commission and Parliament.

In its defence, the Commission points out that fewer than 10% of the requests it received last year were refused.