Tag: access to documents

Public participation in environmental decision-making is to be strengthened after EU Ministers agreed to the principles of the Aarhus Convention. But they stopped short of allowing NGOs the right to drag member states to court.

EU Data Protection Supervisor Peter Hustinx has presented a report that tries to strike a delicate balance between the fundamental rights of access to documents and of data protection. In an exclusive interview with EurActiv, Mr. Hustinx commented on the paper and on other EU data protection issues. 

MEP Cashman, author of a report on public access to EU documents, says that the European Parliament and the national Parliaments ought to keep up the political pressure to achieve progress in this area.

The Amsterdam Treaty introduced Article 255, which gives citizens a right of access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents. Under this article, in May 2001, the EU adopted a regulation on public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents.

On 9 July, Michael Cashman (PES-UK), will present its own-initiative report on access to documents to the Parliament's Committee on Citizens' Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs.

The Court of Justice decided to uphold the judgment of the Court of First Instance annulling the Council's decision to refuse Ms Heidi Hautala, an MEP, access to a report on arms exports. The Court of Justice pointed out that the public must have the widest possible access to documents and agreed with the judgement of the Court of First Instance, which said that the Council should consider partial access to a document containing items of information whose disclosure would endanger EU interests.

Statewatch says Council changes to 1993 Decision on document access undermine discussions on new code of access

The European Environmental Bureau assessed that Commission's plan for the limitation of access to EU documents is "a shocking contrast with the Amsterdam Treaty's promise of more openness in Community decisionmaking".