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EU: Proposed Commission changes to Regulation on access to documents fail to meet Lisbon Treaty commitments

01 March 2011

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EU: Proposed Commission changes to Regulation on access to documents fail to meet Lisbon Treaty commitments

- The public and civil society have a right to know what is being discussed during the EU legislative process

- Abolish the "space to think": Article 4.3 is used to deny access to documents concerning measures "under discussion" because it could "seriously undermine the decision-making process". On the contrary Article 4.3 "seriously undermines" democracy because the public and civil society have no right to know what is being discussed until after a measure is adopted (and sometimes not even then)

- the Commission used Article 4.3 to refuse access to documents in over 25% of initial applications and for the Council the figure was 39.2% (plus an undefined proportion of the 28.2% refused for multiple reasons) [2009 Annual Reports]

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