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EU: REGULATION ON PUBLIC ACCESS TO DOCUMENT: Statewatch challenges Council secrecy on access to EU documents on the revision of the Regulation

01 May 2012

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Letter from the Council refusing access to three documents concerning the Council's discussions on revising the Regulation on access to EU documents (pdf)

In response, a confirmatory application by Tony Bunyan, on behalf of Statewatch (pdf)

The Council had hidden three crucial documents and claimed that access could not be given because:

1) It would "prejudice Council's capacity to conduct frank and candid discussions". In other words to meet in secret as a legislature under the so-called "space to think" (under Article 4.3 of the Regulation on acces to documents).

See: The case for the repeal of Article 4.3

2) The Council then claims that there was an "absence of any element suggesting an overriding public interest" in dislcosure - it is hard to think of an issue on which the public's right to know what is being discussed manifestly outweighs the need for secrecy.

3) The Council concludes by saying that access may to given "after the the final adoption of the act" - subject still to Article 4.3 para 2.

Tony Bunyan, Statewatch Director, comments:

"The notion that the wish of a legislature to meet in secret (by failing to release the documents being discussed) outweighs the public interest of the citizens on such a fundamental issue, namely the right to know what is being discussed and proposed in a legislative process in order to know and allow for public debate, has no place in a democracy worthy of the name."

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