Decision-Making Transparency in Europe identified as top priority on International Right to Know Day

Brussels, 29 September 2017 – Members of the European Parliament together with CSOs, academics, and journalists from across the EU have called for greater openness of decision making and full transparency of spending of public funds in the final declaration of an International Right to Know Day event held on 28 September 2017.

The closing statement of the expert, high-level event, organised by the European Parliament’s cross-party Transparency and Anti-Corruption Intergroup (ITCO) along with Access Info Europe and Anticor Belgium, also called for full respect for the right of access to information, and urged all EU Member States to align their access to information laws with international standards.

“On the 15^th International Right to Know Day, it’s clear what the key European transparency challenges are and it’s important that we agreed common priorities for action,” said Helen Darbishire, Director of Access Info.

The Statement reflects the findings of a three-year research project by Access Info and partners across Europe into decision-making transparency, which identified problems such as lack of record keeping, slow responses to requests, and over-application of exceptions. The full set of findings can be found here:

“Our research found that 80% of decision-making information is not published proactively, which must change if we are to increase citizen participation and ensure democratic accountability at the EU and national levels,” added Darbishire.

The main recommendations of the European Right to Know Day 2017 Statement are:

Decision-making should be accountable and accessible
There should be public scrutiny in the spending of public funds and the use of public resources
Transparency for the powerful to avoid conflicts of interest, corruption and other threats
Transparency is a fundamental right that should be implemented properly

You can read the Statement in full, here: