Navigating the maze. The difficulty of accessing EU documents

In August 2015 the European Commission published its annual report for 2014 on public access to institutional documents. Transparency International commented 'Access to information is vital for any well-functioning democracy. It should be standard practice that the EU institutions publish all documents from each step in the legislative process. They should not wait for someone to request them, but rather put them online pro-actively. Not only would this reduce the administrative burden on the under-staffed Transparency Unit at the Commission but it would greatly improve the transparency of EU decision making. Finally, it would mean that the institutions would comply with the spirit of article 10 of the EU treaties: 'Decisions shall be taken as openly and as closely as possible to the citizen'.

• Primary Source

European Commission: COM (2015)391: Report ... on the application in 2014 of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/rep/1/2015/EN/1-2015-391-EN-F1-1.PDF

EurActiv, 02.09.15: [Opinion]: EU institutions are less transparent than many member states http://www.euractiv.com/sections/trade-society/eu-institutions-are-less-transparent-many-member-states-317240

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