Blog

Opening Up SDG 5: What do we know about Gender Equality?

2020-09-23T12:56:00+02:00

This report was originally published in March 2020 and later updated in July 2020. 27 March 2020- Across Europe governments are failing to make public data on gender equality, research by Access Info Europe has found, making it impossible for citizens to track national progress on Sustainable Development Goal indicators on reducing discrimination and violence against women, and on securing equality in education, employment, and political participation. The report “Opening Up SDG 5: What do we know about Gender Equality?” shows that for seven countries – Austria, Croatia, France, Germany, Hungary, Spain and the United Kingdom – on average little

Opening Up SDG 5: What do we know about Gender Equality?2020-09-23T12:56:00+02:00

Access Info and Maltese CSOs discuss strategies for strengthening the right to information

2020-04-01T11:24:52+02:00

Malta, 6 March 2020 – Access Info Europe representatives today met with civil society and journalists from Malta to discuss strategies for improving respect for the right of access to information. The discussion centred on how to ensure that the 2008 Freedom of Information Act is properly implemented, as well as how to secure eventual improvements to the law, and how to change the administrative culture to one more favourable to transparency and open government. The problems identified include high levels of refusals which do not contain detailed justifications, administrative silence, the length of the appeals process, and examples of

Access Info and Maltese CSOs discuss strategies for strengthening the right to information2020-04-01T11:24:52+02:00

Call for Transparency of Frontex

2020-05-04T10:04:56+02:00

Madrid/Brussels, 5 March 2020 – Access Info Europe today joined Open Knowledge Germany and more than 40 civil society organisations in calling on the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) to stop imposing legal fees on activists and human rights defenders in order to prevent them from exercising their right to access information. In a letter sent to the Frontex Director, Fabrice Leggeri, and the Head of Legal and Procurement Unit, Hervé Caniard, the organisations ask the EU agency to retract the lawyers’ bill passed to activists Luisa Izuzquiza and Arne Semsrott, who had presented the first access to

Call for Transparency of Frontex2020-05-04T10:04:56+02:00

Malta: Access Info in Court to defend the right of access to information

2020-03-05T16:51:04+01:00

Malta, 5 March 2020 – Access Info today argued before the Maltese Information and Data Protection Appeals Tribunal that denying non-residents the right to request information violates Malta’s commitments under international human rights law, EU law, and its own Constitution. The legal challenge relates to a refusal in August 2019 by Malta’s Ministry for Home Affairs and National Security to register a request on migrant returns made by Access Info’s Martina Tombini on the grounds that Malta’s FOI law states that only those who are EU citizens and have been resident for at least five years can submit requests. In

Malta: Access Info in Court to defend the right of access to information2020-03-05T16:51:04+01:00

Frontex Legal Bill Risks Chilling Effect on Defence of Transparency

2020-03-05T16:39:37+01:00

2 March 2020 – Access Info today expressed its concern at the high lawyers’ bill of €23,700.81 sent by the EU’s border agency Frontex to transparency activists Luisa Izuzquiza and Arne Semsrott, after they lost an access to documents case at the Court of Justice of the European Union. The bill is for outside legal assistance as well as travel costs, although no breakdown of the precise elements has been received. The case related to a request for access to documents about naval operations carried out by Frontex in the Mediterranean as part of border control of trafficking and rescue

Frontex Legal Bill Risks Chilling Effect on Defence of Transparency2020-03-05T16:39:37+01:00

European Commission publishes Commissioners’ Expenses historical data after advocacy by Access Info

2020-02-27T12:17:17+01:00

27 February 2020 – Access Info Europe today welcomed the online publication of the European Commissioners' Mission Expenses from December 2017 to December 2019, which had been previously taken offline by the European Commission. The renewed publication of the data comes after Access Info denounced its non-availability, submitted a formal request for it via that AsktheEU.org platform, and wrote to Commissioner Vera Jourová, in charge of Values and Transparency; no response has yet been received to that letter. “We are pleased to see that minimum standards of transparency have been restored, in line with the 2017 Commission commitment to publish

European Commission publishes Commissioners’ Expenses historical data after advocacy by Access Info2020-02-27T12:17:17+01:00

The EU should open up to citizens via social media to engage them in decision making

2020-03-02T17:27:21+01:00

Madrid, 14 February 2020 – Citizens across Europe need better access to information to participate in decision-making processes at European, national, and local level. This is one of the main recommendations by Access Info Europe and partners in the publication ‘YOU4EU Policy Recommendations’, presented in Brussels on 6 February 2020 at the high-level conference “Engaging citizens for good governance in Cohesion Policy”. The publication is based on extensive research in five countries by Access Info Europe in Spain, Belgrade Open School in Serbia, Gong in Croatia, Institute Alternative in Montenegro and PiNA in Slovenia. The organisations found that European Institutions

The EU should open up to citizens via social media to engage them in decision making2020-03-02T17:27:21+01:00

YOU4EU Policy Recommendations

2020-02-14T16:45:34+01:00

The publication ‘YOU4EU Policy Recommendations’ is the result of the project ‘YOU4EU – Citizen Participation 2.0’. A list of conclusions and recommendations aimed at improving transparency and civic participation across Europe. This publication highlights that, in Europe, there is a pressing need to improve citizen participation in decision-making processes, not only at the EU level, but also at national and local levels. However, there is still a long way to go in Europe: communication channels with citizens must improve, and responses to requests must be faster and more comprehensible, leaving aside confusing administrative terminology. There is also an urgent need

YOU4EU Policy Recommendations2020-02-14T16:45:34+01:00

Call for Transparency of the EU Court of Justice

2020-02-13T18:16:50+01:00

Madrid, 12 February 2020 – Access Info today joined the organisation The Good Lobby, and nearly 250 signatories in sending an open letter to the President of the European Court of Justice, asking for their hearings to be live streamed so that there is genuine transparency in the Court's proceedings. The letter to the Court President, Konen Lenaerts, draws attention to the need of restore citizens' trust in judicial system "at a time of growing, and worrisome, populistic attacks on the judicial branch across the EU." The signatories denounce the lack of transparency of the Court's hearings, which prevents European

Call for Transparency of the EU Court of Justice2020-02-13T18:16:50+01:00

Bureau request for Russia report transparency dismissed as ‘vexatious’

2020-02-13T17:13:30+01:00

The Bureau of Investigative Journalist | 13/02/2020 No 10 has dismissed as “vexatious” a freedom of information request by the Bureau for emails between the prime minister’s office and the parliamentary committee behind the Russia report in the run up to the 2019 general election. The Bureau sought these emails because they could have shed light on Boris Johnson’s controversial decision to delay the publication of the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) report into Russian influence in the UK until after the election. Read more...

Bureau request for Russia report transparency dismissed as ‘vexatious’2020-02-13T17:13:30+01:00