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European Commission: Access to documents: Requests for Commission documents reach record high

24 October 2014

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See: Requests for Commission documents reach record high (Press release, pdf):

"There were 6,525 requests – a rise of 8.5% on the 6,014 document requests in 2012. This compares with just 450 requests when the current rules entered into force in
2001. The Commission handles around twice as many requests as the Council and European Parliament combined, and grants access in more than four out of five cases." [emphasis added]

See: Report on the application in 2013 of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents (pdf) and: Annex - statistics (pdf): The Press release fails to mention: "The frequency of invoking the protection of the Commission's decision making process (Article 4(3)) as ground for refusal at the initial stage, in relation to all invoked exceptions, slightly increased in comparison with the previous year (27.1% against 25.2% in 2012). It was the most frequently invoked exception,..." [emphasis added and 16.3% of confirmatory applications are refused on the same grounds]

Tony Bunyan, Statewatch Director, comments:

"This is an extraordinary claim. One of the reasons the Commsiion get more requests for documents is that its public register of documents in manifestly incomplete. In 2008 the Commission refused to comply with the Recommendations of the European Ombudsman following a Statewatch complaint."

See: Statewatch wins European Ombudsman complaint against the European Commission over its public register of documents – but it refuses to comply (pdf) "18 December 2008 the Ombudsman found it an instance of maladministration by the Commission and issued “Critical remarks” and said: “The Ombudsman remains unconvinced that it would be impossible, or logically impossible, to maintain a register of all documents that are in possession."

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