Madrid, Wednesday 14 May 2014 – The Spanish government has developed a its second Open Government Action Plan as part of its involvement in the Open Government Partnership, a 64-country initiative promoting transparency, participation, and accountability, and is inviting comments from members of the public to be sent to an email address provided below. Under the Open Government Partnership rules, Spain should hold a full consultation with civil society on the new action plan, something which did not happen with the first action plan in April 2012.
To date only a very limited consultation is being planned, with distribution to civil society organisations along with a request to disseminate more widely. This is something Access Info Europe previously agreed to do during a meeting held in April with Secretary of State José Luis Ayllón. At that time we had understood that there would be a more extensive consultation process, with the government reaching out to different sectors of Spanish civil society. Members of the public are invited to provide comments and suggestions on what should be included in the action plan and to send them to the email address gobiernoabierto@mpr.es.
Access Info Europe does not consider this to be a full public consultation as carried out in other OGP member countries. Access Info Europe is calling on the government to open up the process and also to provide information about how it will use the contributions in finalising the action plan. If anyone would like to make their contribution or comments on the action plan public, these can also be sent to info@access-info.org and will be posted on the Access Info Europe website.
Guidance by Access Info Europe for commenting on the action plan
» Comments can be on what is in the action plan and also on what is not contained in it. Are there aspects of open government, transparency, participation and accountability that should be a priority for the Spanish government? For guidance on what should and should not be included, you might want to look at the Open Government Standards, which set out what a comprehensive open government policy should include.
» Are the proposals detailed enough and are the time frames appropriate? You may want to comment on whether the proposals in the action plan could be more specific, or whether the time frames are either unrealistic or longer than necessary.
For more information, please contact:
Victoria Anderica, Access Info Europe
victoria@access-info.org | +34 606 592 976