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Critical analyses

Statewatch
Public access to EU documents: critical analyses

The democratic accountability of the EU’s legislative approach (November 2012)

Statewatch "wins" complaint against the European Commission on public register of documents (January 2009)

European Parliament:Abolish 1st [and 2nd] reading secret deals - bring back democracy by Tony Bunyan (September 2009)

Proposals for greater openness, transparency and democracy in the EU by Steve Peers (October 2008)

FOI in the EU: When is a "document" not a "document"? by Tony Bunyan (September 2008)

Statewatch complaint against the European Commission lodged with the European Ombudsman in 2006 (November 2007)

Secret trilogues and the democratic deficit (September 2007)

Openness and transparency in the Council by Steve Peers (June 2006)

More openness or just a drop in the ocean? by Tony Bunyan (December 2005)

The right to know or the right to try and find out? The need for an EU freedom of information law by Ben Hayes (November 2005)

“Attacking the citizens’ right of access?”, by Steve Peers (December 2004)

Digital Government in the European Union: Freedom of Information Trumped by “Internal Security” by Deirdre Curtin (2003)

Secrecy and Openness in the European Union, by Tony Bunyan (2003), an online book detailing the history of access to documents in the EU, complaints to the European Ombudsman and the Court of Justice, and the struggles by civil society to get proper freedom of information

EU annual reports on access to documents - still a very long way to go (2003), speech by Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, to the European Parliament

Essays for an Open Europe (2000), three essays written by Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, Professor Deirdre Curtin, Professor of the Law of International Organisations, University of Utrecht and a member of the "Meijers Committee", and Aidan White, Secretary-General of the European Federation of Journalists on the need for a new code to truly "enshrine" the citizens' right of access to EU documents and to ensure that civil society knows what measures are planned before they are adopted and is able to monitor their implementation. Thousands of copies of the "Essays" have been mailed out and downloaded from the internet.