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29 Sep 2017

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

2018-11-13T10:03:07+01:00

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

Decision-Making Transparency in Europe identified as top priority on International Right to Know Day2018-11-13T10:03:07+01:00
21 Sep 2017

Spanish High Court orders disclosure of documents about OGP citing European Court of Human Rights jurisprudence

2018-11-13T10:03:07+01:00

[UPDATE - 2 March 2018 - The documents disclosed can be found here.] Madrid, 21 September 2017 – Spain’s High Court has ruled that Access Info Europe should have access to Spanish Government documents related to participation in the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in an important ruling where the Court for the first time makes reference to the right of access to information in international treaties. In a final decision, which is not open to appeal, the High Court rejected the Spanish Government’s attempt to classify progress reports on the OGP Action Plan as internal documents of an “auxiliary” nature.

Spanish High Court orders disclosure of documents about OGP citing European Court of Human Rights jurisprudence2018-11-13T10:03:07+01:00
14 Sep 2017

EU Commissioners’ travel expenses to be published proactively every two months

2018-11-13T10:03:18+01:00

Madrid, 14 September 2017 - Access Info today cautiously welcomed draft changes to the Code of Conduct for EU Commissioners announced yesterday by the EU, which will require the proactive publication of travel expenses every two months. The pro-transparency organisation, which, with the support of 120 citizens from across Europe, has been campaigning for access to the Commissioners’ travel expenses, noted that the draft text of the Code contains nothing on the precise data to be made public. Access Info has called for more specificities. “The devil is in the detail. A truly transparent system will provide citizens with enough

EU Commissioners’ travel expenses to be published proactively every two months2018-11-13T10:03:18+01:00
13 Sep 2017

Access Info urges OECD to adopt strong and clear definition of Open Government

2018-11-13T10:03:18+01:00

Madrid, 13 September 2017 – Access Info Europe has urged the Organisation for Cooperation and Economic Development (OECD) to adopt a definition of an “Open Government” as one characterised by transparency, participation, responsiveness, and accountability, in line with increasingly established standards set by bodies such as the Open Government Partnership. Responding to the OECD’s public consultation on Open Government, Access Info raised concerns that the draft Recommendation confused three things: - the tools needed to achieve open government (such as use of new technologies to open up data) - the characteristics of an open government (transparency, participation and accountability) -

Access Info urges OECD to adopt strong and clear definition of Open Government2018-11-13T10:03:18+01:00
1 Sep 2017

EU President Juncker plans to publish Commission travel expenses – Access Info calls for full and detailed transparency

2018-11-13T10:03:18+01:00

Madrid, 1 September 2017 - European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is planning to publish the travel expenses of the EU’s 28 Commissioners according to reports today by Le Soir newspaper and Politico.eu. This move comes in the wake of a campaign by Access Info and 120 requesters from across Europe, which generated intense media coverage earlier in August. Reports suggest that publication of the data will only happen once per year and will be designed to give the public a “picture” of the travel costs. Access Info is calling for more frequent publication, noting that once every month should be

EU President Juncker plans to publish Commission travel expenses – Access Info calls for full and detailed transparency2018-11-13T10:03:18+01:00
14 Aug 2017

Fact-checking the European Commission’s press conference on the Commissioners’ expenses

2018-11-13T10:03:18+01:00

Madrid, 14 August 2017 - On 9 August, European Commission spokesperson Mina Andreeva faced a barrage of questions from journalists about the European Commissioners’ travel expenses, after two months of detailed data was disclosed following a three-year campaign by Access Info Europe. Access Info has fact-checked some of Andreeva’s key statements. 1. “We do publish mission expenses whenever we are asked to provide information.” The European Commission has been hugely resistant to publishing this information. After a long campaign by Access Info and 120 requesters from around Europe who submitted, in total, over 200 requests, we have managed to obtain

Fact-checking the European Commission’s press conference on the Commissioners’ expenses2018-11-13T10:03:18+01:00
28 Jul 2017

Ombudsman asked to investigate refusal to publish legal advice on the legal basis for EU lobby register

2018-11-13T10:03:18+01:00

Madrid/Brussels, 28 July 2017 – With upcoming negotiations on reforming the state of EU lobbying transparency imminent, the legal advice given to the Commission and Council on the legal basis for lobby reform is back under the spotlight following appeals this week to the EU Ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly. Access Info Europe's and MEP Dennis de Jong's parallel complaints to the EU watchdog challenge the refusals by the two institutions to make transparent their legal advice on whether or not it’s possible under the EU Treaties to set up a mandatory EU lobby register with sanctions. “Civil society and MEPs are

Ombudsman asked to investigate refusal to publish legal advice on the legal basis for EU lobby register2018-11-13T10:03:18+01:00
27 Jul 2017

Transparency of Commissioners’ travel expenses “disproportionate” says European Commission

2018-11-13T10:03:18+01:00

Madrid, 27 July 2017 – Access Info has described as extremely regrettable that six months after 120 European citizens requested access to last year’s travel expenses of the 28 EU Commissioners, the Commission has taken a unilateral decision to disclose data just for January and February 2016, and that it will not contemplate any greater transparency. Furthermore, in response to our letter to Vice President Timmermans proposing that this data be published proactively, the Commission has concluded that it “does not see added value in publishing online the detailed travel expenses” as the cost of processing the data “would be

Transparency of Commissioners’ travel expenses “disproportionate” says European Commission2018-11-13T10:03:18+01:00
21 Jul 2017

EU’s top court confirms that all documents held by European Commission fall under access to documents rules

2018-11-13T10:03:19+01:00

Madrid, 21 July 2017 - Access Info Europe welcomed this week’s ruling from the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union, that the Commission cannot automatically refuse access to whole categories of documents in its possession. The Court confirmed that the EU institutions should always apply the EU’s access to documents rules to any documents they hold, regardless of the original authors. “Sometimes it’s important to confirm basic principles of this fundamental right, such as that if the Commission holds a document, it has to process a request, and there can never be automatic denials, no

EU’s top court confirms that all documents held by European Commission fall under access to documents rules2018-11-13T10:03:19+01:00
20 Jul 2017

Promoting Paris in Zagreb

2021-06-03T17:47:39+02:00

[Post first published on the Open Government Partnership Blog] Helen Darbishire, Executive Director   Zagreb, 20 July 2017 - “It’s really hard to have put a lot of effort into publishing a citizens’ budget and then to have only ten people click on it,” lamented one official in the Croatian Ministry of Finance. This is a classic challenge facing reformers inside government in many OGP countries, who need to be able to motivate their colleagues to organise data into open, accessible formats for public consumption. In spite of the controversy whirling outside about conflicts of interest in the relationship between

Promoting Paris in Zagreb2021-06-03T17:47:39+02:00
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