New codes on public access to documents

Date: 15/01/1998

By Leyla Linton

ALL but one of the EU institutions and key bodies have announced plans to adopt rules on public access to documents, in response to warnings from the European Ombudsman that failure to do so could constitute maladministration.

The Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market has already established new rules and 13 other institutions and bodies have informed Ombudsman Jacob Söderman that they are in the process of drawing up codes.

Only the European Court of Justice has yet to decide whether it will follow the EU watchdog's guidance on adopting regulations governing access to administrative documents.

The Court has told Söderman that it has great difficulty in establishing a clear distinction between papers which are judicial and those that are not. The ECJ's committee on the rules of procedure is still studying the problem.

Those bodies which have announced plans to introduce new rules include the European Parliament, the Court of Auditors, the European Investment Bank, the Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions and the European Monetary Institute.

Codes are also promised by the European Training Foundation, the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop), the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, the European Environment Agency, the Translation Centre for Bodies of the European Union, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction and the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products.

The move follows an investigation by Söderman in 1996 into whether EU institutions and bodies had issued general rules easily available to the public or internal guidance to staff on public access to documents.

The European Parliament's petitions committee will discuss his follow-up report on the progress made since then next Monday (19 January).