EU: Secrecy law (1)
01 January 1991
EU: Secrecy law
artdoc June=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may be granted and withdrawn only by the Member state in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.
Statewatch Vol 4 no 2, March-April 1994
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