Open Company Registers2021-08-30T11:52:02+02:00

ACCESSING COMPANY REGISTERS
USING THE RIGHT TO KNOW

ONLY 1 OUT OF 32 EUROPEAN COUNTRIES ALLOWS FREE, PUBLIC
ACCESS TO ITS ENTIRE COMPANY REGISTER

CoReg_Report_Cover

0
countries were sent requests for a copy of the entire company register database
0
countries refused access to their company register database in its entirety
0
countries charge money for access to the company registers database
0
countries give free, public access to the entire company registers database
European governments, by putting these obstacles to accessing company register data, are complicit in blocking investigative journalists in their work uncovering criminal activities, money laundering, and tax evasion.
Helen Darbishire, continue reading...

Recommendations

  • Company registers in Europe should be fully accessible to the public, free of charge and in open data formats.
  • The right of access to information should apply in full to the bodies holding company registers and to the registers themselves.
  • Registers should enable and facilitate searches for company information record-by-record, for free.
  • Registers should include and make available to the public information on the beneficiary owners of companies.
  • Privacy policies should always be applied consistently and it should not be possible to override supposed privacy considerations by simply paying for the information.

Experts’ views

Why is it important for the public to have full, free access to company registers?

Users perspective on access to company registers:

The Findings

The map below summarises the results of the request process, which took almost two years to complete.

To find out more about what happened in each country, click on the map or use the country-by-country list below:

Map Key
In red…Refused access to info
In orange…Process still ongoing
In green…Gave full access to info
In blue…Administrative silence

OPEN COMPANY REGISTERS LATEST NEWS

17Jun 2020

Access Info joins the UNCAC Coalition Board

Madrid, 17 June 2020 – Access Info Europe, represented by its director, Helen Darbishire, has been elected to the UNCAC Coalition Coordinating Committee, the network that coordinates civil society activity in monitoring and promoting the UN Convention against Corruption. Access Info was elected to one of the two international seats on the UNCAC Coalition Coordinating Committee, with 75.7% of the

16Apr 2020

EU urged to protect rule of law during coronavirus states of emergency

Madrid, 16 April 2020 – Access Info Europe today joined 80 MEPs and civil society organisations in calling on the European Union to address restrictions on the rule of law and human rights, including freedom of expression and information, being introduced via coronavirus pandemic emergency measures. In an open letter sent to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and

12Feb 2020

ACT! Fighting Corruption at Local Level

Madrid, 11 February 2020 – The Anticorruption City Toolkit (ACT!) is a project designed to prevent corruption at local level by providing municipalities with policies and digital tools for improving the detection and reporting of corruption, for receiving information requests, and for controlling public procurement and budgeting. The project is being carried out by a pan-European consortium comprising Access Info

27Jan 2020

European Commissioners’ Expenses Transparency: Ombudsman accepts challenge to secrecy justified by “privacy”

Madrid, 27 January 2020 – The European Ombudsman has accepted two complaints from Access Info against the refusal by the European Commission to provide information about the exact nature of “miscellaneous” travel expenses claimed by various Commissioners, including former Commission President Jean Claude Juncker’s spending of €8,320 while at the G20 in Buenos Aires in November 2018. The Commission has