EU: Secrecy law
01 March 1994
The secrecy laws agreed in December 1993 by the General Affairs Council of the EU are only partly in operation. The Council Secretariat is operating the new procedures in relation to the release of documents - it is refusing to release the full minutes and background documents in the fields of policing, immigration and judicial cooperation (all the areas covered by TITLE VI of the Treaty of Union - the new name for the Maastricht Treaty -and dealt with by the K4 Committee). The vetting of staff handling sensitive material is however on hold because negotiations with the staff unions and ongoing discussions between the permanent delegations of EU state on precise definitions. The Dutch government's challenge to the new procedures is with the European Court of Justice. (see Statewatch vol 3 no 6 & vol 4 no 1).
Through COREPER, the permanent committee of high-level officials representing each state, and its subsidiary committee, the ANTICI group (deputies) some governments have been seeking "clarifications". The German delegation said that if the procedures were to have an "unchallengeable legal basis" it should take the form of a "regulation" as it imposed legal obligations on Member states (who would carry out security screenings of Council staff). The French delegation wanted a weightier form of obligation. The Legal Service of the Council opposed the legal form of a "regulation" on the grounds that they did not have the power to do so under the EC Treaty. The Legal Service further pointed out that no powers to adopt "internal security rules for the General Secretariat' were given under the TEU. All they were empowered to do was to adopt a "Decision" which "may provide for obligations on Member states".
The Italian delegation raised the question of the status of people who work for the Council. Staff were not, they said:
"yet subject to supranational arrangements, with European citizenship, a European police force and European courts, and are therefore still national citizens and subject to purely national investigation, rulings and sanctions. Security clearance may therefore apply only nationally and may be granted and withdrawn only by the Member state in question."
Classified information: draft Council decision: Legal Service opinion 7.2.94 SN 1405/94; ANTICI GROUP: meeting document:Classified information 20.1.94 SN 1260/94.