Madrid/Brussels, 9 March 2021– MEPs are being urged to vote on 9 March 2021 to end secrecy surrounding the control of fishing by removing a controversial clause that dates from 1993, long before the EU’s transparency norms got adopted.
Brussels, 14 January 2021 - 72 civil society organisations from the EU and across the globe have called on Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to end secrecy around how fishing activities are controlled and sanctioned in a crucial vote to be taken in the Fisheries Committee on 26 January 2021. In a letter sent to all MEPs, the signatories warn that the lack of transparency in the current implementation of the EU Fisheries Control Regulation means the law is in fact failing to prevent illegal fishing. This, in turn, is a major threat to the sustainability of marine resources,
Access Info Europe today joined Corporate Europe Observatory, Transparência e Integridade and 63 other civil society organisations from across Europe, calling on the incoming Portuguese Presidency of the European Union to push for much needed lobby transparency, accountability and democratic reforms within the Council.
Strasbourg (virtual participation), 17 November 2020 – Access Info today called on all member states of the Council of Europe to sign and ratify the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents – the Tromsø Convention – with a particular call on France, Germany, Italy and the UK to follow Spain in ensuring that Europe’s largest countries are party to the Convention.
Madrid, 31 August 2020 – An open letter, signed by 28 health organisations, transparency associations, and academics, has called on the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to take the simple step of providing an email address so that EU citizens can send access to documents requests directly via email.
Madrid, 13 July 2020 – Access Info Europe has joined 83 civil society organisations from around the world in calling on donors to continue funding transparency and accountability in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing economic crisis. In an open letter, the signatories welcomed efforts by donors to redirect funds towards potential new needs arising from the covid-19 pandemic, but also stressed the need to keep investment in civil society work on access to information and data disclosure during the recovery phase and beyond. “It has become crystal clear during the past four months that transparent, open,
Madrid, 9 July 2020 – Access Info Europe has created a pro bono legal network of lawyers from across Europe with varying legal backgrounds who are willing to offer assistance to requesters seeking access to EU documents, in particular journalists and civil society organisations. The first training of these lawyers took place on 8 June 2020, when the pro bono lawyers heard from lawyers who are leading experts in EU transparency. Onno Brouwer and Elske Raedts, addressed the main exceptions used to withhold documents at the EU level and identified key pro transparency cases from the Court of Justice of
Madrid, 1 June 2020 - Pro-transparency human rights organisation Access Info Europe is glad to launch AsktheEU Pro, an improved version of the AsktheEU.org account designed to upgrade journalists and researchers’ experience when requesting access to documents from the EU bodies and institutions. The new advanced functionalities of the platform include the possibility for Pro users to keep requests and responses private for 3, 6 or 12 months’ periods, which can be extended for an unlimited number of times. Access Info believes that this will help journalists and researchers wishing to keep their stories or investigations confidential before they are
Madrid, 21 April 2020 – Access Info today welcomed the announcement by the Council of the European Union that it will continue to process requests for documents, doing its best to adhere to the 15 working day timeframe, during the ongoing coronavirus crisis. A message from the Secretariat General’s Transparency team reads: The General Secretariat of the Council continues to support the political work, with some key services having to be present. Thanks to digital technology, the majority of staff remains fully operational. For the Transparency team, this means that we continue to deal with all requests for access to
Madrid, 8 April 2020 – Access Info Europe today called on the European Commission to collect and publish more data on gender equality, after finding low levels of gender data publication across Europe and revealing that the EU’s Statistical Office Eurostat has excluded various gender-related indicators as not relevant. In letters sent to Helena Dalli, EU Commissioner for Equality, and Paolo Gentiloni, EU Commissioner for Economy in charge of Eurostat and coordination of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Access Info noted that little over half (57%) of the SDG gender-related indicators are published in the European region, as shown