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17 Dic 2015

Civil society expose holes in EU lobby transparency rules

2018-11-13T10:04:24+01:00

This post was originally published by ALTER-EU. Madrid/Brussels, 17 December 2015 - Research by ALTER-EU member groups Corporate Europe Observatory, Access Info Europe and Friends of the Earth Europe shows that well over 90 per cent of meetings between DG FISMA (the Commission's department for financial regulation) officials not covered by transparency rules and lobbyists are with the corporate sector. Since the end of 2014, following an initiative by new European Commission President Juncker, the meetings of commissioners, their cabinets and directors-general with lobbyists are published online. This transparency initiative has enabled the public to see which lobbyists get most

Civil society expose holes in EU lobby transparency rules2018-11-13T10:04:24+01:00
20 Nov 2015

Giegold Report Welcomed but Could Be More Ambitious Says Access Info

2018-11-13T10:04:36+01:00

Madrid, 20 November 2015 - Access Info Europe today welcomed recommendations by Sven Giegold MEP, Rapporteur for the Constitutional Affairs Committee of the European Parliament, on greater transparency and accountability ofEU institutions, but has warned that they do not go far enough in addressing the need to improve access to EU documents in law and in practice. The pro-transparency organisation pointed to the need for exceptions to the right of access to EU documents be subject to a public interest test, and the importance of removing barriers to access such as the requirement since April 2014 that requesters must supply

Giegold Report Welcomed but Could Be More Ambitious Says Access Info2018-11-13T10:04:36+01:00
20 Nov 2015

Access Info presents: The Berlaymont Snail!

2018-11-13T10:04:37+01:00

It’s just like the good old days: the doorbell rings, and there is the postman with a registered letter – how exciting!! - you sign and open it, but nowadays you are more likely to find it’s a letter from the European Commission refusing to grant access to this or that document. These days we refer to the postal service as “snail mail”. And yes, once again the Berlaymont Snail has arrived in Madrid to deliver a letter to Access Info! Except that the refusal to grant access to information had already arrived ten days ago via AsktheEU.org. The Commission's

Access Info presents: The Berlaymont Snail!2018-11-13T10:04:37+01:00
20 Nov 2015

Journalists take European Parliament to Court over access to MEPs’ expenses

2018-11-13T10:04:37+01:00

Madrid, 20 November 2015 - The refusal by the European Parliament to make public details on spending of MEPs expenses allowances on grounds of personal data protection has been challenged before the European Court of Justice by a network of journalists from each of the 28 Member States. This initiative was started by Slovenian journalist Anuška Delić who discovered that she could get information about the expenses of members of the Slovenian parliament but not about Slovenian MEPs in Brussels. Welcoming the legal challenge, Access Info argued that the European Parliament should be setting a standard for levels of transparency

Journalists take European Parliament to Court over access to MEPs’ expenses2018-11-13T10:04:37+01:00
30 Sep 2015

Civil society calls for reform of trialogues in a letter to EU Commission, Parliament and Council

2020-01-29T11:25:49+01:00

Madrid, 30 September 2015 - Access Info Europe along with European Digital Rights (EDRi) and other 16 signatory organisations, today sent an open letter to European Parliament President Martin Schulz, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Council Secretary-General Jeppe Tranholm-Mikkelsen, calling for a major reform of the so-called “trialogues”. The letter calls for public access to be granted to the trialogue meetings, and for the systematic and timely publication of all trialogue documents. The letter remains open to signatories. “Citizens should be able to scrutinise EU decision-making,” said Andreas Pavlou, Campaigner Researcher at Access Info Europe. “The lack of transparency around

Civil society calls for reform of trialogues in a letter to EU Commission, Parliament and Council2020-01-29T11:25:49+01:00
21 Ago 2015

Access Info submits recommendations to European Parliament on improving EU transparency

2020-01-29T11:14:30+01:00

Madrid, 21 August 2015 - Access Info Europe today sent recommendations on improving transparency in the EU in law and in practice to Sven Giegold MEP (Greens, Germany) rapporteur for the Initiative Report for Transparency, Integrity and Accountability in the EU institutions. Key problems that need to be addressed urgently include ensuring that all exceptions to the right of access to documents are subject to a public interest test, and that recently-introduced artificial barriers to access such as the need to supply a postal address be removed. Access Info’s recommendations are based on analysis of the ways the EU’s access

Access Info submits recommendations to European Parliament on improving EU transparency2020-01-29T11:14:30+01:00
30 Jul 2015

Global civil society calls upon EU to join Open Government Partnership

2018-11-13T10:04:48+01:00

Madrid, 27 July 2015 – Access Info Europe, the Open Society European Policy Institute, and Publish What You Fund have sent a letter endorsed by 50 organisations from around the world, calling on Members of the European Parliament to encourage the European Union to sign up to the Open Government Partnership (OGP). The OGP is a 65-country multi-stakeholder initiative that brings together champions of democratic reform from governments, parliaments, international organisations, civil society and the private sector. Its members include 20 EU member states, 5 candidate countries and another 9 European Neighbourhood countries. The letter emphasises the benefits that OGP

Global civil society calls upon EU to join Open Government Partnership2018-11-13T10:04:48+01:00
28 Jul 2015

European Ombudsman investigates lack of transparency in selection of judges for European Court of Justice

2018-11-13T09:46:11+01:00

Madrid, 27 July 2015 – The European Ombudsman last week called on the Council of the European Union to respond to allegations made by Access Info Europe and the HEC-NYU EU Public Interest Clinic that it wrongly refused access to information on selection processes used for judges entering the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). The EU Clinic originally requested access to the opinions of the panel that examines all judicial candidates put forward by the Member States for the Court of Justice and the General Court of the EU. The information was denied on the basis that

European Ombudsman investigates lack of transparency in selection of judges for European Court of Justice2018-11-13T09:46:11+01:00
26 Jun 2015

New lobby transparency civic-tech tools reveal corporate dominance of the Brussels bubble

2020-01-29T11:07:19+01:00

Madrid, 25 June 2015 - The RTI community celebrated this week the launch of two groundbreaking online tools that enable citizens to monitor the interactions between high-level European Commission officials and lobbyists in the Brussels bubble: » LobbyFacts.eu, created by ALTER-EU's Corporate Europe's Observatory, Friends of the Earth Europe and LobbyControl, and relaunched last week, is a site that delivers easy access to data from the EU Transparency Register, allowing you to compare entries over time and to sort and rank the data contained in the EU's (still voluntary) Transparency Register; » IntegrityWatch.eu, created by the Transparency International EU office,

New lobby transparency civic-tech tools reveal corporate dominance of the Brussels bubble2020-01-29T11:07:19+01:00
24 Jun 2015

European Commission urged to act to improve transparency

2018-11-13T10:04:49+01:00

Madrid, 24 June 2015 – In a letter to European Commission Vice-President Timmermans as part of an ongoing dialogue, Access Info Europe has called for action to improve EU transparency in law and in practice. The pro-transparency organisation stressed the urgent need to bring the EU’s access to documents rules into line with international standards, and raised concerns about problems accessing key documents, as observed in responses to requests submitted on the AsktheEU.org platform. Access Info’s analysis of the EU’s access to documents Regulation 1049/2001 using the RTI Rating, found that although it scores a solid 96 out of 150,

European Commission urged to act to improve transparency2018-11-13T10:04:49+01:00
Original content developed by Access Info Europe and is made public under a Creative Commons Attribution, Share Alike licence.