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EU: ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS: European Court of Justice rules in favour of greater transparency of the Council of the EU

17 October 2013

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"Madrid/Luxembourg, 17 October 2013 — In a case brought by Access Info Europe, the European Court of Justice today rejected arguments by the Council of the European Union that it should be able to keep secret the identities of Member States making proposals in the context of negotiations on future EU legislation....The Council of the EU had fought to defend its policy of releasing legislative drafting documents with the names of Member States tabling amendments blacked out."

The document in question, as the court notes, concerned discussions within the Council on amending the Regulation on public access to EU documents - it was dated 26 November 2008 and the full-text (with Member States' positions) was put online at the time by Statewatch: EU doc no: 16338/08 (pdf). At issue was the Council's deletion of Member States' positions: The judgment observes in para 8: "On 26 November 2008 – that is to say, the very day on which the requested document was created – an unedited version of the requested document was made available to the public on the internet site of the organisation Statewatch, without authorisation (‘the unauthorised disclosure')."

See the full text: European Court of Justice rules in favour of greater transparency of the Council of the EU (Access Info, link) and Full-text of judgment (pdf)

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