To celebrate International Right to Know Day on 28 September, Access Info Europe and the Coalición Pro Acceso are holding a public seminar on the right of access to information at the Complutense University in Madrid. Government transparency is a burning issue in Spain, which is the last country in Europe with a population of more than one million not to have an access to information law. On 16tAugust this year, the daily newspaper El País reported leaked information that the draft “Law on Transparency and Citizen Access to Public Information” will soon be passed to the parliament. The urgent

Madrid, 25th August 2010 — Access Info today wrote to the Spanish government asking for information about the draft “Law on Transparency and Citizen Access to Public Information”. On Monday 16th of August the press carried news that the law would soon be approved by the Council of Ministers; nothing has been heard since about the progress of the draft law. Meeting agendas of the Council of Ministers are secret in Spain until after the meeting has taken place. Access Info provided the government with comparative examples of other countries in which Cabinet meeting agendas are made public and asked

Transparency Law begins Legislative Process Behind Closed Doors Madrid, 16 August 2010 – Spanish Daily El País today announced that this Friday (20 August 2010) the Spanish Council of Ministers will consider for approval the draft “Transparency and Access of Citizens to Information Law”, thereby initiating the legislative process with leaked information. Access Info Europe condemns the leaking of the draft law to the media rather than a formal public release of the text, and has renewed its call for full debate and structured public consultation around the draft law. “To date, the only information that we have about this

Access to Information in Spain: Analysis and Guides Access Info presents four key documents which review the current Spanish legal system for access to information. As well as detailed analysis Access Info presents a guide to accessing information in Spain. In Spain there does not exist adequate regulation to recognise the right to access information. After in depth analysis it is clear that the only regulation dedicated to access to information is insufficient and does not uphold the basic principles and guarantees for access to information established at the international level.

Spanish government urged to publish draft access to information law Madrid, 3 May 2010 – On World Press Freedom Day Spain’s Coalición Pro Acceso has written to the government calling on it to publish the draft of the future access to information law. The 30-member coalition is calling on the government to publish the draft before it is sent to parliament, so that civil society can provide comments and suggestions. The Coalición Pro Acceso argues that a public debate will benefit the future law. “Publishing the draft law would be a gesture of transparency in line with the openness that