[A2k] Statewatch, Commission proposals to amend Regulation on access to EU documents

[Soenke Zehle]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: =09Exclusive: Commission proposals to amend Regulation on access
to EU documents
Date: =09Mon, 28 Apr 2008 19:14:20 +0100
From: =09statewatch <statewatch-off@geo2.poptel.org.uk>
To: =09statewatch@gn.apc.org

*Statewatch analysis:
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2008/apr/com-access-1049-statewatch-analysis=
-April.pdf

The European Commission proposals to amend the Regulation on access to
EU documents (1049/2001)
*
*
*Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, comments:

/=E2=80=9CThe scope of the Commission=E2=80=99s amendments and its consulta=
tion do not
consider many of the fundamental questions posed by civil society and
the European Parliament.

Perhaps the most crucial is the public=E2=80=99s right to know what is bein=
g
discussed before it is adopted in Brussels =E2=80=93 a practice that would =
never
be tolerated at national level.

Moreover, two of the Commission amendments are highly retrogressive. The
new definition of a document would mean that if an official does not
register it then it is not a =E2=80=9Cdocument=E2=80=9D =E2=80=93 a recipe =
for abuse. And the
obligation of institutions to give public access to the full text of
documents would be limited to legislative measures =E2=80=93 and not cover =
the
hundreds of thousands of other documents produced and received.

The Amsterdam Treaty was agreed 11 years ago (1997) and was meant to
herald a new era of openness and transparency =E2=80=93 we are still waitin=
g for
this to happen.=E2=80=9D

/*NOTE
*
1. All the background Commission documents are on: Statewatch's
Observatory: Freedom of Information in the EU
* http://www.statewatch.org/foi/foi.htm

*/2. Statewatch/ has been working on access to EU documents since 1991.
It has lodged eight successful complaints with the European Ombudsman
against the Council of the European Union (the governments) and two,
more recently, against the European Commission =E2=80=93 the first of which=
 it
won and second decision is due soon. Each of these complaints increased
the rights of all to access to EU documents.

In 2001 /European Voice/ newspaper: Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, was
selected by a distinguished panel as one of the "EV50", one of the fifty
most influential people in the European Union over the year for
Statewatch's work on access to documents in the EU

Tel: 00 44 208 802 1882
E-mail: office@statewatch.org