Madrid, 16 October 2015 – Access Info Europe submitted a formal complaint to the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in relation to the Spanish government’s manifest lack of commitment towards the principles and values supported by the Alliance, of which Spain is member since 2011.

Access Info’s complaint is specifically structured around four key obstacles to transparency, participation and accountability which constantly complicate collaboration and cooperation with the government when trying advance in open government matters:

  1. No communications mechanisms have been set up to enable dialogue and facilitate consultation processes with civil society; this includes the absence of an identifiable contact point, website, and proactively published information;
  2. In four years there have been only two public consultation exercises, both of which have been severely criticised by civil Spanish civil society organisations. A new consultation on the self-evaluation of the action plan has been disseminated in a very limited way.
  3. According to an official answer to an access to information request, only two meetings have been held inside the government relating to the OGP in the past 18 months (one of which was internal, the other with just two civil society organisations);
  4. The Spanish government recently refused to provide to Access Info any documents created it about OGP, all of which have been classified as “internal” or “auxiliary” and some of which, the government says, have been destroyed;

The letter was sent to the OGP Support Unit as well as to the Spanish government. You can read the formal complaint here: alt

For more information, please contact:

Helen Darbishire | Access Info Europe
Send an e-mail or call +34 913 656 558