EU secrecy: "Brussels stitch-up" threatens right of access todocuments (feature)
01 March 1999
The Commitment
"Any citizen of the Union.. shall have a right of access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents.."
Article 255 of the Treaty establishing the European Communities (TEC, Amsterdam Treaty)
"This Treaty marks a new stage in the process of creating an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe, in which decisions are taken as openly as possible and as closely as possible to the citizen."
Article A of the new Treaty on the European Union (TEU, Amsterdam Treaty)
"The Amsterdam Treaty embraces the concept of openness..by granting citizens of the Union a genuine right of access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents.."
Discussion paper on public access to Commission documents, 23 April 1999 and summarising the discussions held between "officials" from the European Parliament, Council and Commission
The "Stitch-Up"
"Under the present arrangements, all internal Commission documents are in theory accessible, unless covered by one of the exceptions explicitly cited in the code of conduct.. In order to avoid any problem that may arise in the future and make it easier to apply the right of access, the new legislation should define what is meant by a 'document from one of the institutions'"...
"Consequently, the scope of future legislation would not extend to working documents produced in the form of a contribution to internal proceedings.. This would make it possible to protect proceedings while ensuring access to the final outcome."
"... an embargo could be imposed.. to delay access to certain documents to avoid any interference in the decision-making process and to prevent premature publication of a document from giving rise to "misunderstandings" or jeopardising the interest of the institution (eg: granting access to preparatory documents only after the formal adoption of a decision.."
Discussion paper on public access to Commission documents, 23 April 1999 and summarising the discussions held between "officials" from the European Parliament, Council and Commission
Proposals drawn up by senior officials from the Council, Commission and European Parliament are seeking to deny citizens access to documents in direct contravention of the Amsterdam Treaty. The Amsterdam Treaty built on the successful challenges by citizens, in the Court of Justice and through the European Ombudsman, by explicitly establishing a right of access in EU Community law. The forces for secrecy in the EU - referred to by Mr Soderman, the European Ombudsman, at a Conference in Brussels on 26 April as the "dinosaurs" - are trying, under the cloak of implementing the Amsterdam Treaty, to turn the clock back so that the institutions can control what documents are to be released, to whom they will be released and when they will be released.
At the centre of this "stitch-up" are two key proposals:
1. In place of a right of access to all documents, documents would be divided into two categories:
a. "Accessible" documents concerned with the legislative process - new measures on police and customs cooperation under the revised Title VI of the TEU - and Regulations and Directives under the TEC. Access to these would be granted to the citizen subject to point 2 below and the current exceptions.
b. All other documents (except organisation and administrative ones) would be classified as internal "working documents" and would be "automatically" excluded from access.
2. Having divided documents into "accessible" (1.a above) and non-accessible (1.b above), even "accessible" documents would be subject, in addition to the current exceptions (Article
4.1 of the 1993 Decision), to:
"an embargo [which] could be imposed.. to delay access to certain documents to avoid any interference in the decision-making process and to prevent premature publication of a document from giving rise to "misunderstandings" or jeopardising the interest of the institution (eg: granting