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European Parliament urged to support protections for right of access to information in wake of killing of Slovak journalist
Madrid, 13 March 2018 – In light of the shocking news that Jan Kuciak was likely killed as a result of his work as an investigative journalist and whose freedom of information requests may have been passed to the subject of his inquiry, a total of 61 civil society organizations today wrote to the European Parliament calling for stronger safeguards
Letter to European Parliament with Statement on killing of Jan Kuciak
Madrid/Brussels, 13 March 2018 Dear Member of the European Parliament In advance of tomorrow's parliamentary debate on the killing of Slovak investigative journalist Jan Kuciak, please find below a statement signed by 61 civil society organisations from across Europe and elsewhere expressing their concern about the fact that his investigation may have been exposed after he submitted request for information,
European Commission starts publishing travel expenses proactively
Madrid, 2 March 2018 – Access Info Europe has welcomed today the start of proactive publication of EU Commissioners travel expenses as a positive step towards greater transparency and accountability of spending of public funds. Proactive publication of this information had been a crucial demand of Access Info, which has led a campaign for greater transparency of travel expenses since
Greater transparency of Council legislative process, fundamental for representative democracy, says European Ombudsman
Madrid, 13 February 2018 – Access Info today welcomed the European Ombudsman recommendation that the Council of the European Union increase transparency of its legislative process in order to guarantee citizens’ right to hold their elected representatives to account and to participate in the democratic life of the EU. Two main findings of the Ombudsman’s inquiry into transparency of the
Secrecy over international relations trumps transparency of EU-Turkey deal
Madrid, 8 February 2018 - The General Court of the European Union has ruled that the public does not have the right to access the European Commission’s legal advice on the March 2016 EU-Turkey agreement on returning migrants and asylum seekers from Greece to Turkey. The Commission had applied a series of exceptions to documents requested by Access Info Europe,
The documents in dispute: The European Commission’s legal advice on the EU-Turkey deal
From 7 March 2016, the day when a pre-agreement with Turkey was reached, to 12 April 2016, when the deal was already under implementation, the European Commission consulted with its legal services on a wide range of issues related to the legality of the EU-Turkey agreement. These consultations resulted in a total of 11 documents – sometimes produced at late
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