Public participation can change the way public policies are developed, reducing capture by special interest groups, and ensuring that decisions take into account the views and needs of affected communities. Although information alone is not sufficient—additional mechanisms are necessary for receiving input from the public, reviewing it, and providing feedback on how this input was taken into consideration—meaningful participation exercises are contingent on the public having timely access to the same data as the officials making the decision. Participation cannot be effective or equal if individuals have to file requests and wait for an answer. The role of transparency in

Limiting access to information to under-16s goes against the principle of access to information as a fundamental right No one should have their right of access to information restricted due to their age according to Access Info Europe and transparency experts. This declaration follows a meeting between Access Info and authors of a draft transparency law in Catalonia, Spain, who have a provision which would restrict access to information to under-16s. Following the meeting between Catalan representatives and Victoria Anderica, Access Info Europe has published a short report that outlines the arguments against restricting access to information due to age,

The Spanish Transparency, Access to Information and Good Governance Law establishes the rules on the access to information procedures in Article 17, one of which is identifying the identity of the requester. This is not necessarily a problem, given that many access to information laws around the world also ask for such information in order to direct the response directly back to the requester, the difference and real problem in Spain is that access to information is considered an administrative procedure and therefore making requests comes under administrative procedure rules. The following mini report by Access Info outlines the reasons

Para celebrar el Día de Europa, Access Info publicó en 2013 una Guía para ayudar al ciudadano a acceder a los Documentos de la UE, animando a los miembros de las organizaciones de la sociedad civil y pública a ejercer sus derechos y presentar solicitudes de acceso a los documentos. La UE ha reconocido como derecho fundamental el acceso a los documentos de la dicha institución. Sin embargo, la ley de libertad de información de la UE – que tiene el llamativo título de 'Regulación 1049/2001' – sigue siendo poco utilizada por la mayoría de la población. La guía desmistifica

Published in October 2009, the Aid Transparency Toolkit is a guide for civil society organisations and members of the public interested in knowing more about how aid works and where the money goes to get the answers to their questions. This Toolkit is designed for CSOs in the north and south working on aid effectiveness, monitoring the implementation of aid projects, seeking to participate in decision making on development strategies or investigating corruption in aid funding and delivery. It can also be used by individuals from donor or recipient countries who are intersted in knowing about aid funds. The toolkit

This toolkit is designed for journalists working in any media – newspapers, radio, and television – as well as bloggers and other information professionals who need to get access to information held by public bodies for their stories. The toolkit is for journalists making requests in their own country or considering filing a request in another country. It is based on a comparative analysis of the access to information of the 40 countries of the Council of Europe region which have such laws. In many places in the text we have put references where national law or practice deviates from