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

Recommendations on DG Trade Vademecum submitted to EU Access Info Europe and Corporate Europe Observatory on 6 April 2010 submitted a new round of comments to the EU’s Directorate General for Trade on its internal guidelines for access to documents, the controversial “Vademecum” first leaked to the public in March 2009 and revised by DG Trade in June 2009 following a strong reaction by the public.

Access Info’s Access to EU Documents Requests Access Info firmly believes that an access to information law is meaningless unless it is actually used. Apart from that, making requests is an excellent way to monitor the state of transparency within the European Union. It also provides us with opportunities to push for greater transparency by taking legal action, for example. In general, we request information, wait for the response, and carefully analyse it to see if it is in line with international access to information standards. If it isn’t, we submit a confirmatory application, which is an appeal to the

Access Info's Litigation at the European Union Access Info Europe v. Council of the European Union, Hellenic Republic and United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland – T-233/2009 The EU is reforming its rules on access to documents and Access Info wanted to know what position each government was taking on the reform. We asked the Council of the EU on 3 December 2008, and it responded on 17 December. The Council granted Access Info partial access to the documents requested: we were provided with the summary of the discussions but without the names of the countries which had

Access Info has identified some key problems with EU transparency: People are having problems getting access to information: the European Ombudsman’s report for 2008 says that 36% of citizens’ complaints relate to transparency and access to documents. But at the same time, most users of the EU’s access rules are businesses rather than journalists, civil society organisations or members of the public. And even when these stakeholders might think about making requests the explanations given on the EU’s websites makes it seem quite daunting (despite the fact that making requests is really quite straightforward!).