Le droit d’accès à des documents européens est ‘en danger’ [en] 

Entitlement to access Commission, Parliament and Council documents is considered as a fundamental right of European citizens and is a key element of the wider debate surrounding the transparency and openness of the EU institutions. 

Citizens' rights in this field are set out in a 2001 Regulation on public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents, to which the EU executive proposed amendments in April 2008. 

"The [EU executive's] proposals not only ignore the lessons of the past but also the new promises to citizens, civil society and representative associations made in the Treaty of Lisbon," EU Ombudsman P. Nikiforos Diamandouros told MEPs participating in the hearing. 

"The Commission's proposals would mean access to fewer, not more, documents," he claimed, which "raises fundamental issues of principle about the EU's commitment to openness and transparency." 

Although the Ombudsman welcomed a move to make documents available to non-EU citizens and non-residents of the bloc, he claimed that in many cases citizens can "only apply for access to a document if it appears in a register," which would be "a step backwards for transparency". 

Responding to the Ombudsman's claims, Commission spokesperson Joe Hennon said "we will have to study what [Diamandouros] has said, but in principle we do not agree that there is less access to documents now. We think there is more access." 

Meanwhile in Germany, members of the CSU (the Bavarian sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats) yesterday accused the Commission of discrimination by only making "3%" of the documents it sends to member states available in the German language. 

The CSU members claimed that the 240,000 calls for tender sent to member states by the EU executive are "almost exclusively" available in English and French only, according to Die Welt. 

European Ombudsman P. Nikiforos Diamandouros was speaking at a European Parliament hearing on citizens' right of access to EU documents entitled 'Towards a European Freedom of Information Act', which also gathered representatives of the Commission, Council and civil society organisations to discuss "the positive and negative aspects of the current legal framework" regarding citizens' access to documents. 

Commission Vice President responsible for communications strategy Margot Wallström said the revised regulation "will improve citizens' access to documents," which she described as equally important as the right to vote. "Citizens have a right to request access [to documents] and the institutions must provide this," she added. 

Defining 'document' in this context, Wallström said "all texts received and drafted become documents the moment they are signed and sent". 

Italian MEP Marco Cappato (ALDE), Parliament's rapporteur on the annual review of the access to documents regulation, said improving citizens' access to EU documents would help "combat the democratic deficit separating the EU from its citizens". 

"Those who don't really understand how the institutions work must be able to find [the documents] they are looking for" to prevent EU communication from being labelled "propaganda" by eurosceptics, he added. 

"If growing euroscepticism is to be eradicated then we must clearly explain what we are doing for the citizen and how we are doing it," said Socialist MEP Michael Cashman (UK), Parliament's rapporteur on the reform of the access to documents regulation. 

"The real democratic deficit is in the Council. We can no longer accept that the Council discusses, debates and votes in secret," Cashman added. 

A representative of the Council expressed reservations about publishing the positions of national delegations, which should be done on "a case-by-case basis" to take account of "the wider public interest". 

Ian Harden, the EU Ombudsman's secretary general, said "no element of this proposal seems to make more documents accessible" and warned the plans could even reduce access. "Narrowing the definition of what constitutes a document as the Commission suggests would be a step backwards," he added. 

Steve Peers of Statewatch, which monitors civil liberties in Europe, called on the Parliament and the Council "to open up the co-decision procedure" because key documents relating to dialogue between the institutions are not currently available to the public. 

Meanwhile, he described the revised regulation as "a real step backwards" regarding the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice. 

Tony Venables of the European Citizen Action Service called on the Commission to establish a "separate information commissioner" to deal exclusively with access to documents requests.