Madrid, 22 May 2014 – The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has pulled out of a case before the UK’s Information Tribunal resulting in cancellation of a court hearing due this week (20-21 May) and has agreed to provide Access Info Europe with full information on negotiations in Brussels to revise the European Union’s transparency rules. The specialised Information Tribunal issued a formal decision on 21 May 2014 closing a four-year legal process arising from an information request first made on 15 June 2010 by Access Info Europe Campaigner Pam Bartlett Quintanilla. Just three weeks before the court hearing

Dublin, 14 April 2014 - Ireland's first Open Government Partneship (OGP) action plan should contain a commitment to abolish fees for making access to information requests according to civil society in an open letter to the Irish Minister for Reform, Brendan Howlin. The letter follows campaigning in late 2013 to get fees abolished, and has been published given the upcoming OGP European Regional Meeting to take place in Dublin on 8-9 May. The letter, signed by Access Info Europe and 28 other civil society organisations and over 40 individuals, more specifically challenges the charging of up-front fees for FOI requests

Madrid, 23 January 2014 – Access Info Europe today condemned the cease and desist order sent by the German Government to information request platform FragdenStaat.de, requiring it to take offline a document written by government staff and obtained under Germany’s access to information law on the grounds of protection of copyright. The document is an opinion about a German Federal Constitutional Court judgement that had declared the 5% minimum share of votes for political parties to take seats in the European elections as unconstitutional. Contrary to the opinion – which also stated that any other kind of threshold would also

Madrid/Halifax, 15 November 2013 - Intense campaigning by Irish and international civil society organisations has resulted in an important policy reversal by the Irish government. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Brendan Howlin, has withdrawn, for now at least, an amendment to the Freedom of Information Bill 2013 which threatened to charge multiple up-front fees for requests deemed to include more than one question. Welcoming the withdrawal of the proposed amendment to expand the charging regime, Access Info Europe and Centre for Law and Democracy today wrote to Minister Howlin urging him to go further and abolish the existing

Madrid/Dublin, 12 November 2013 – The specialist freedom of information NGO Access Info Europe today expressed serious concern at attempts to maintain and even increase fees for FOI requests in Ireland and noted this is not permitted by European and international standards. Access Info Europe noted that the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents expressly prohibits charges for requests. The Convention clearly states that a fee may only be charged to the applicant “for a copy of the official document, which should be reasonable and not exceed the actual costs of reproduction and delivery of the document”

Madrid/Warsaw, 30 June 2014 – Access Info Europe participated in a conference, working with Polish NGO Cities on the Internet, to present the final assessment of levels of implementation of The Access to Public Information Act 2001 by public bodies at the central and regional level. The project, led by Cities on the Internet, aimed to promote a more effective realization of the constitutional right of access to public information by gathering data and analytical evidence necessary for civic oversight of implementation of that right, as well as its exercise. The project researched, analysed legal frameworks, publications, training, and created

Madrid, 15 July 2013 – France has recently been embroiled in multiple scandals that have revealed a number of situations of conflicts of interest within the public institutions. In order to restore citizens’ trust in their representatives, the French government has made the issue of transparency a high priority on the political agenda. On 24 April, the Ayrault government proposed before the national assembly’s bureau two drafts laws on the transparency of public life. The texts are now being examined by the French Parliament.