Balkan Insight | 06/12/2022 English - When the European Union’s top court, the Court of Justice of the European Union, ECJ, on November 22 struck down a provision in money-laundering legislation that guarantees the public full access to registers of company ownership, it was not unexpected. But it was still greeted with outrage by NGOs and the media alike. Read more...
Madrid, 9 December 2022 – On the occasion of International Anti-Corruption Day, Access Info is calling on European governments to do more to ensure that the data needed for preventing corruption is both collected and made public. In the wake of the shock ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union, which has already suspended access to beneficial ownership registers in various countries, including Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta and the Netherlands, Access Info warns that it is not only data on the owners of businesses that is missing. Access Info’s research as part of
Madrid, 8 December 2022 – As the UN Biodiversity Conference opens in Montreal, Canada, Access Info has raised concerns about the shortage of biodiversity data with the Global Data Barometer findings being only 43% for biodiversity data in European countries, and only 27% globally. Our research found that no biodiversity data is published online in six (6) European countries, namely Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia. The Global Data Barometer also found a score for Emissions data of 61% in Europe against just 32% globally, with worrying little data on Vulnerabilities to climate change at a low 28%
Submission to OECD Consultation on Lobbying and Influence Madrid, 6 December 2022 – In its analysis of the draft OECD Recommendation on the regulation of lobbying and influence, Access Info has warned of the risk of some governments using the proposed provisions to limit media freedom and freedom of expression in the name of regulating “influence” and ensuring that public officials are “shielded from undue influence”. In the full version of its submission to the consultation on the OECD Recommendation on Transparency and Integrity in Lobbying and Influence (hereinafter “Draft Recommendation) [1], Access Info highlights concerns about the broad
Join us on 16 December 2022 at 14:00h CET on Zoom for the launch of the European region results of the first Global Data Barometer (GDB). We will be discussing how Europe is the strongest region globally on data for public good, but still only has a middling score of 51% overall. The report reveals which data exists and which is missing in areas such as anti-corruption, company & beneficial ownership information, climate action, and health and covid. For 21 European countries, we will be discussing what we can learn from the highest scoring country Estonia with 67% and the
As European Union and African Union representatives meet in Brussels on Monday 28 November 2022 to review progress following the EU-AU Summit in February, 34 African and European civil society organisations have raised concerns about threats to ground-breaking EU transparency measures, which could undermine all that has been put in place to prevent and combat the problem of illicit financial flows out of Africa. The 34 organisations state: “Illicit financial flows rob African nations of almost US$89 billion each year. Anonymous companies are often used as the get-away vehicles of the corrupt, helping syphon these funds out of Africa
European Federation of Journalists | 25/11/2022 English - In a landmark decision on 22 November 2022, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that the EU anti-money laundering directive’s provisions on access to beneficial ownership registers are “invalid”. The court found that the directive (AMLD5, 2018) interferes with the privacy and personal data protection rights of beneficial owners and should therefore not be made available to a wide public. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) denounced a decision restricting the freedom of information in favour of business interests. Read more...
Madrid, 23 November 2022 – The Court of Justice of the European Union on 22 November 2022 declared invalid the provision of the Fifth European Union Anti-Money Laundering Directive that requires EU countries to provide public access to beneficial ownership registers. In a ruling that has sent shockwaves through Europe’s anti-corruption and transparency community, the Court found that the Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD5, 2018) is too loosely framed and provides for overly-wide public access to the registers without a proper justification of the necessity and proportionality of the interference with the rights to privacy and personal data protection of
LIBERA INFORMAZIONE | 16/11/2022 Italian - I partner della coalizione CASE, con il sostegno del gruppo italiano e del Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), esprimono la propria solidarietà a Roberto Saviano riguardo al procedimento penale per diffamazione aggravata avviato nei suoi confronti dall’attuale Presidente del Consiglio Giorgia Meloni. Read more...
Madrid, 10 November 2022 – UNESCO and the Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) recently launched a massive open online course (MOOC) about the right of access to information with the aim to offer people worldwide the opportunity to learn about this fundamental right. The course is free for everyone, it takes just six hours to complete, and provides official certification from UNESCO upon completion. This course is an excellent opportunity for public officials, journalists, civil society, students, and all those who have an appetite to increase or reinforce their knowledge on the right of access to information (ATI). Thaís