ACCESSING COMPANY REGISTERS
USING THE RIGHT TO KNOW
ONLY 1 OUT OF 32 EUROPEAN COUNTRIES ALLOWS FREE, PUBLIC
ACCESS TO ITS ENTIRE COMPANY REGISTER
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.
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
Tenders Guru project: reducing corruption risks with data
Madrid, 20 December 2019- A major pan-European project looking into how to reduce corruption in public procurement, including at the local level, is currently underway in four European countries, and is producing it is first results which can be found on the Tenders.Guru website.
Pushing for beneficial ownership transparency in Europe
[Article first published by the UNCAC Coalition Blog] Andreas Pavlou, RTI Campaigner and Researcher Madrid, 11 April 2017 - Earlier this year, the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs and Civil Liberties committees voted to strengthen beneficial ownership transparency rules across the European Union as part of the current revision to the 4th EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive.
European Civil Society Organisations Urge EU to Publish Anti-Corruption Reports
Madrid, 22 March 2017 – Access Info Europe, Transparency International EU, and 56 other civil society organisations have urged the Commission in an open letter not to abandon its leadership role in the fight against corruption, after it dropped the publication of long-awaited anti-corruption reports of all 28 Member States earlier this year. The letter, also being sent directly to
The risks of transparency in times of rising populism
[Article first published by the UNCAC Coalition Blog] Helen Darbishire, Executive Director Madrid, 10 March 2017 - It’s not often that your own colleagues working on democracy issues actually question the wisdom of pressing for greater transparency, but this has happened to me a few times lately. Most recently, I’ve been asked about the wisdom of pursuing Access
Why is the European Commission not publishing reports on Corruption in the 28 Member States?
Madrid, 3 March 2017 – Fourteen (14) of Europe’s leading transparency organisations today submitted a formal request for EU documents in an attempt to understand what lies behind the European Commission’s surprise decision not to publish the EU Anti-Corruption Report, which was originally scheduled for publication in 2016. The unexpected decision to permanently shelve the second edition of the EU
European Parliament votes in favour of stronger EU-wide beneficial ownership transparency rules
Madrid, 1 March 2017 - Access Info Europe has welcomed yesterday’s vote by the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs and Civil Liberties committees to strengthen beneficial ownership transparency rules across the European Union. The amendments to the EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive agreed by MEPs would mean EU citizens could access registers of beneficial owners of companies and trusts without