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EU: ACCESS TO EU DOCUMENTS: Council of the European Union press release: Council's public register of documents hits 2 million mark

10 July 2013

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"The Council of the European Union's public register has reached 2 million documents online. As of today the register contains the references of 2.000.267 documents. Around 75% of these documents are publicly available and directly downloadable. A further 15% are partially available." ["Partially accessible" means censored]

OVER 50% of initial requests to the Council for documents are refused to keep secret discussions on new measures

These figures sound good until the detail is examined in the Annual Report: The reasons for refusal of access on an initial application was 41/3% were for the "protection of the institution's decision-making process" (this is under Article 4.3 of Regulation 1049/2001). Understandably many applicants are interested in documents which concern new measures being discussed in the Council and its Working Parties yet it would appear that of over 50% are refused - in addition to 41.3% being refused for this reason 30.0% are refused for "Several reasons together" which can also include refusal for the "protection of the institution's decision-making process".

See the full text: Council's public register of documents hits 2 million mark (pdf)and see: Annual report for 2012 (pdf)

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