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EU: ACCESS TO EU DOCUMENTS: Council of the European Union: FIGURES FOR CLASSIFIED/"SENSITIVE" documents given for the first time

03 July 2013

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Of the documents held or produced by the Council:of the European Union in 2012

13,817 were classified as "Restricted" in 2012 - the highest annual figure ever
1,339 were classified as "Confidential" in 2012
9 were classified as "Secret"

These includes documents produced by the Council and those sent to the Council by the European Commission or the European External Action Service (EEAS). The figures for "sensitive"/classified documents produced by the Council itself (and includes in the figures above) are given as:

None were classified as "Top Secret"
33 were classed as "Secret" in 2012
332 were classified as "Confidential" in 2012 (most are not recorded in the public register)
The figure for the number of "Restricted" documents (the largest category is not given as "Restricted" documents are not referred to in the Regulation, Article 9)

See the full report: Annual report for 2012 (pdf)

Tony Bunyan, Statewatch Director comments: "The largest category, "Restricted", 13,817 documents, is of the greatest concern. "Restricted" is defined as where the disclosure of a document would be "disadvantageous" to the interests of the EU or a Member State. The term "disadvantageous" can be used to keep current and ongoing discussions secret and hence stop any critical media coverage - to enforce what has been called "the space to think" for Council and Commission officials and keep the people uninformed and unable to make their views known."

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