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
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
Transparency is Essential for a Credible Post-2015 Development Agenda
Madrid, 19 June 2015 – Access Info Europe has joined civil society organisations from around the globe in calling on the UN to take significant steps to integrate transparency, accountability and participation more fully into the Post-2015 development agenda. In proposing a series of crucial edits to the “Zero Draft” of the Outcome Document for the Post-2015 Development Agenda, the
Civil society urges World Bank to collect and publish beneficial ownership data of contractors
Madrid, 10 June 2015 - Over 100 civil society organizations from around the globe including Access Info Europe, on 8 June 2015 called on the World Bank to require that all companies bidding for Bank-financed procurements disclose their beneficial ownership information and that this information be published in an open data format as part of the Bank’s efforts to foster
End impunity for corruption and recognize people’s rights to information and participation
Hundreds of groups worldwide call for governments to act Madrid, 9 December 2014 - On the occasion of International Anti-Corruption Day, the UNCAC Coalition, an anti-corruption network of 350 public interest groups worldwide and of which Access Info Europe is Europe Region Corrdinator, is calling on governments to get serious about tackling corruption as they agreed when they adopted the
Launch of new global campaign to stop secret government contracting
Madrid, 27 February 2014 - Today sees the launch of a new global campaign, Stop Secret Contracts, calling on world leaders to end secrecy in public contracting. The campaign is coordinated by the Open Knowledge Foundation, and signed by Access Info Europe along with signatories including Global Witness, Integrity Action, the International Budget Partnership, the Sunlight Foundation and Transparency International.