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About Helen Darbishire

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So far Helen Darbishire has created 1914 blog entries.
10 Mar 2017

The risks of transparency in times of rising populism

2018-11-13T10:03:40+01:00

[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 Info’s high profile campaign to get the European Commission to publish the travel expenses of EU Commissioners. The fear seems to be that this very peculiar time in European history – with sensitive elections in France and the Netherlands, with

The risks of transparency in times of rising populism2018-11-13T10:03:40+01:00
10 Mar 2017

Commissioners’ Expenses Campaign Update: EU continues to refuse to recognise requests

2018-11-13T10:03:41+01:00

Madrid, 10 March 2017 – Access Info Europe today condemned the European Commission’s refusal to process 189 requests for data on EU Commissioner’s travel expenses submitted by 120 people in January 2017. In a formal complaint sent today, Access Info alleges a serious violation of the access to documents rights of these 120 individuals by lumping all 189 requests together and then claiming that the time needed to answer would be unreasonable for one request – a total of 75.5 working days according to the Commission. The complaint rejects the “fair solution” offered by the Secretariat General of the Commission,

Commissioners’ Expenses Campaign Update: EU continues to refuse to recognise requests2018-11-13T10:03:41+01:00
10 Mar 2017

EU ‘breaking own laws’ by keeping documents secret

2018-11-13T09:45:35+01:00

Euobserver | 10/03/2017 Inglés - The Council of the EU, where national governments meet, acted against EU law when they laid down guidelines for handling internal documents, the Dutch parliamentary attorney said in a report this week. The report said that the principal rule that all internal Council documents should be marked LIMITE “is incompatible with European transparency law”. Leer más...

EU ‘breaking own laws’ by keeping documents secret2018-11-13T09:45:35+01:00
3 Mar 2017

Why is the European Commission not publishing reports on Corruption in the 28 Member States?

2018-11-13T10:03:41+01:00

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 Anti-Corruption Report, first published in 2014, was announced by Vice-President Frans Timmermans in a letter to the European Parliament in early 2017. The watchdog organisations from across the European Union have requested documents relating to the decision to withhold the

Why is the European Commission not publishing reports on Corruption in the 28 Member States?2018-11-13T10:03:41+01:00
1 Mar 2017

European Parliament votes in favour of stronger EU-wide beneficial ownership transparency rules

2018-11-13T10:03:41+01:00

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 having to demonstrate a “legitimate interest” something that will make it easier for investigative journalists and anti-corruption watchdogs to track down illegal activity, organised crime, money laundering and large-scale tax evasion. “Only full transparency of beneficial ownership registers across Europe

European Parliament votes in favour of stronger EU-wide beneficial ownership transparency rules2018-11-13T10:03:41+01:00
27 Feb 2017

Commissioners’ Expenses Campaign Update: Requesters Left in the Dark

2018-11-13T10:03:42+01:00

Madrid, 27 February 2017 – A month after 120 people from around Europe submitted a total of 189 requests for data on the travel expenses of European Commissioners for the year 2016, the requests have not even been registered by the Commission, in flagrant breach of its legal obligation to do so, and to respond within 15 working days. In an email exchange with Access Info’s director, Helen Darbishire, the Head of the Transparency Unit at the Secretariat General, Martin Kröger, has stated in writing that “Commission does not intend to send individual communications … to the applicants” and that

Commissioners’ Expenses Campaign Update: Requesters Left in the Dark2018-11-13T10:03:42+01:00
20 Feb 2017

Commission data reveals lobby transparency loopholes and corporate bias

2018-11-13T10:03:42+01:00

[Article first published by ALTER-EU.] President Juncker´s proactive transparency policy continues to fail to address loopholes in lobbying transparency rules and does not ensure balanced stakeholder consultation, according to a new analysis by the Alliance for Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU). Brussels/Madrid, 20 February 2017 - ALTER-EU criticised the loopholes in the Commission’s policy on lobby transparency after its latest research exposes that 81 per cent of lobby meetings with DG FISMA between January and July 2016 fell outside the current proactive transparency obligations. These meetings (held only with lower-level officials) are not subject to the Commission’s disclosure regime and

Commission data reveals lobby transparency loopholes and corporate bias2018-11-13T10:03:42+01:00
17 Feb 2017

OGP in Spain: More political will on participation, but legal battles for information are still underway!

2018-11-13T10:03:42+01:00

[Article first published by the Open Government Partnership Blog] Madrid, 17 February 2017 - February has been a month in which numerous high level political figures in Spain have been found guilty and sent to jail on corruption charges, including King Felipe VI’s own brother-in-law sentenced to six years in prison (more info in English here), things are also moving forward in a positive way when it comes to developing open government, with a new political team working on the next OGP Action Plan and Madrid City Hall holding an innovative, large-scale, public consultation as part of its first OGP

OGP in Spain: More political will on participation, but legal battles for information are still underway!2018-11-13T10:03:42+01:00
Original content developed by Access Info Europe and is made public under a Creative Commons Attribution, Share Alike licence.