UK citizens prove most inquisitive about policies

Date: 30/01/1997

By Rory Watson

JUST over one in ten applicants seeking access to internal European Commission documents over the past three years has left empty-handed.

A new unpublished report compiled by the Commission shows those requesting documents containing details of the EU's competition policy or infringement proceedings were the most likely to be turned down.

The report states that the Commission has received 1,054 requests for access to internal papers since it - and the Council of Ministers - introduced a code of conduct in early 1994.

Almost 100 applications were ruled out of order on the grounds that the documents had already been published, did not belong to the Commission or did not exist. In 88% of the remaining 845 cases, the Commission released the papers.

Not surprisingly, almost one- third (298) of all applications originated in Belgium, with the vast bulk of these coming from pan-European organisations monitoring EU affairs.

The figures show the largest take-up of the access policy was in the UK (18%), followed by France (10%) and Germany (9%). At the other end of the scale came Greece, where interest in Commission documents was negligible.

Enthusiasm was only slightly higher in Luxembourg (5 requests) - despite the Union's activities in the Grand Duchy - Portugal (9) and Ireland (16).

Policy areas of greatest interest to the public were the environment (170 requests), industrial affairs (121), fisheries (118) and competition policy (84).

Under the code, requests can be refused to protect the public interest and respect the confidentiality of discussions or if they are judged to be a threat to individual privacy, commercial and industrial secrecy or the EU's financial interests.

Union Ombudsman Jacob Söderman has called on all the 15 EU institutions and bodies to adopt their own rules on public access to documents. He has confirmed that he will consider any failure to follow the lead set by the Council and Commission as a case of maladministration.

Seven Union institutions and agencies have agreed to adopt similar rules and three others are examining the possibility.

Söderman has warned the remaining trio - the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training, the Euro-pean Environment Agency and the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products - that he does not consider a vague commitment to transparency sufficient.

Feature looks at a report analysing requests for unpublished Commission documents from the public.