Public access to documents: jurisprudence between principle and practice (between jurisprudence and recast)

In this paper, the author critically evaluates the main tendencies in the case law on Public Access to Documents which should be read against the backdrop of the difficult ongoing review of Regulation No 1049/2001. In doing so, she hopes to raise policy-makers’ awareness of what is really at stake in this far from “marginal” dossier. Without questioning the necessity and value of transparency of legislative and administrative processes in a democracy, the author pleads in favour of ‘optimal’ as opposed to ‘maximal’ openness.