Acceso Público a la Unión Europea
La Unión Europea es una poderosa fuerza política tanto en los 27 estados miembros como a escala global. Access Info está trabajando para que la UE sea responsable ante sus 500 millones de ciudadanos. Queremos una Europa abierta, que respete y promueva los derechos humanos.
Estamos promoviendo una normativa más clara y enérgica para el acceso a documentos y también trabajando para asegurar que la legislación existente sea correctamente aplicada. Ofrecemos formación de cómo solicitar información de la UE así como apoyo a organizaciones de la sociedad civil y a aquellas personas que quieren pedir información. También participamos en campañas a favor de una mayor transparencia, y cuando es necesario, litigamos en casos relacionados con el acceso a la información.
EU Transparency for Participation and Accountability
2009 is a key year for deciding on European Union transparency: there are proposed changes to the EU's access to documents rules (Regulation 1049/2001) to be concluded after the European Parliament election in June 2009.
The levels of transparency of the EU are important for the future democratic credibility of Europe's super-state. It is therefore important that there be a wide public debate before any reforms to the existing access rules are introduced.
Access Info has identified some key problems with EU transparency:
People are having problems getting access to information: the European Ombudsman's report for 2008 says that 36% of citizens' complaints relate to transparency and access to documents. But at the same time, most users of the EU's access rules are businesses rather than journalists, civil society organisations or members of the public. Even when stakeholders might think about making requests the process can appear quite daunting from explanations given on the EU's websites (despite the fact that making requests is really quite straightforward!).
The proposed reforms to the access rules presented by the European Commission in 2008 would reduce the right of Europe's citizens to know about decision-making, the exercise of power, legislative initiatives and the spending of public funds in Brussels. The result is likely to be a greater distancing of citizens from Union institutions and a lowering of public trust just at the moment when the EU is seeking to recover from the failure to adopt the Lisbon Treaty.
It is also of great concern that the debate about the revision of the access rules is itself inaccessible to the public - Access Info has had difficulty obtaining key documents about the proposed reform which would tell us the positions that different member states are taking over the reforms. We have launched legal challenges against this lack of transparency - more details can be found below on this page.
The legislative process is extremely complex and very difficult for citizens to follow, the Commission does not disclose legal advice nor is it possible to get information about the positions taken by member states in preparing draft legislation; trying to follow the process involves a maze of websites which could only be fully understood by dedicated experts. There is no reason that the legislative process at the EU should be less transparent that it is in member states.
