MEP launches new challenge in access to documents campaign

Date: 29/01/1998

By Rory Watson

FINNISH MEP Heidi Hautala is opening a new front in the campaign for public access to internal EU documents.

The Green Euro MP has lodged a formal complaint with the Union's Court of First Instance (CFI) after her request for Council of Ministers' documents on conventional arms exports was turned down by EU governments.

Hautala is the first MEP to mount a legal challenge to member states' refusal to hand over documents.

Unlike other campaigners who have focused largely on civil liberty and justice issues, she is training her fire on the secrecy which surrounds common foreign and security policy (CFSP) matters.

"I chose the Court rather than the European Ombudsman, as at least one of my colleagues has done, as I feel it has more teeth. It will also provide a very interesting opportunity to see how the Union takes CFSP decisions," explained Hautala.

The MEP admits she is motivated more by the wider principle of transparency and access to internal documents than by specific details of the export code.

"I feel that the legal challenges on justice and home affairs decisions have helped raise awareness of the lack of civic rights and I hope that my case will help to focus attention on CFSP issues," she said, adding: "No one can question that citizens and non-governmental organisations, especially human rights watch groups, have an increasingly important role in foreign relations. The time when foreign policy was a diplomatic privilege is over."

Hautala's efforts to prise information from EU governments began more than a year ago when she tried to find out what weight the Council of Ministers gave to the eight different criteria used since 1992 to determine whether arms exports should be allowed or not.

Her interest was sparked after weapons sales were approved to countries such as Indonesia and Turkey, whose human rights records have come in for severe criticism.

"One of the eight guidelines is the need to respect human rights and I felt this was not getting the attention it deserved given the actual practice of governments. It is legitimate to expect that since it is known that these eight criteria exist, citizens would also have a right to know how these are interpreted and executed," she insisted.

In their initial response to the MEP's questions, EU governments pointed to a report on the implementation of the guidelines produced by the intergovernmental CFSP working group on conventional arms exports.

But when Hautala asked for the document, in her capacity as an individual citizen rather than as an MEP, her request was turned down.

Although four member states - the UK, Sweden, Denmark and Greece - supported her, the majority insisted the report contained sensitive information whose disclosure would be harmful to the public interest and security.

When pressed further, EU governments claimed more specifically that "the disclosure of the report in question could be harmful for the EU's relations with third countries".

The final decision to refuse to hand over a copy of the document was taken without debate at a meeting of consumer ministers in November.

Member states now have less than a month to respond to Hautala's challenge before the CFI holds oral hearings on the case.

Finnish MEP Heidi Hautala has lodged a formal complaint with the European Court of First Instance after her request for access to Council documents on a CFSP matter was rejected.