Access Info's Advocacy for Greater EU Transparency The access to information requests filed by Access Info are only the beginning of a long journey towards our goal of greater transparency in the European Union. Using this research, we can then write reports on the state of transparency in the European Union, make recommendations based on our specific expertise, and rally all those interested in their Right to Know what the EU is doing. To find out more about our work, click on one of the links below. Partnerships Specifically for EU access to documents campaigning, Access Info Europe has teamed

European Union Principles on Access to Parliament, Council and Commission Documents Background The European Union’s equivalent of an access to information law has the formal title of Regulation No 1049/2001 regarding Public Access to European Parliament, Council and Commission Documents (henceforth, Regulation 1049/2001). It grants members of the public and legal entities the right to access documents held, transmitted or received by the EU institutions.

Proposed Amendments to EU Access to Documents Regulation 1049/2001 In 2008, after a relatively short seven years of application during which the European Commission lost a number of key cases overturning its refusals to grant access to documents, it proposed a complete recasting of the Regulation 1049/2001. The justifications for this include bringing it into line with the Lisbon Treaty which expands the scope of the regulation to apply to all EU institutions and all requesters. Another reason given by the Commission is the need to incorporate the provisions of the Aarhus Convention on access to environmental information into the