Madrid City Hall Transparency Ordinance Sets a High Standard

Civil society recommends strengthening proactive publication and lobbying regulation

Madrid, 29 enero 2016 – Madrid City Hall has prepared a high standard and comprehensive Transparency Ordinance which meets with civil society demands in areas such as proactive publication obligations, the right of access to information, and regulation of lobbies, according to Access Info Europe and other members of Coalición Pro Acceso.

At the same time, the organisations have suggested various improvements including expanding the list of information to be published proactively, establishing a sanctions regime for breaches of the right of access to information, and strengthening regulation of lobbyists.

These comments were made by Access Info, the Human Rights Association of Spain (APDHE), the Association of Communication Users (AUC), the Aragon Association for Defence of the Public Function, CIECODE, and OKFN Spain, as part of a public consultation on the proposed Ordinancebeing run by the Madrid City Hall.

“In particular we recommend that the regulation of lobbying be in line with the International Lobby Regulation Standards on matters such as codes of conduct and revolving door controls,” stated Alba Gutierrez, Access Info campaigner.

“It is also essential that there be good record keeping in order to ensure an effective transparency of decision-making processes,” added Gutierrez.

In their submissions the organisations also recommended shortening the time frames for responding to requests as well as for the internal review mechanism (to 15 working days instead of the 20 working days in the Spanish national law), and publishing in much shorter time frames key information such as agendas and minutes of meeting in order to permit greater citizen participation.

The full text of the submission (in Spanish) can be found here: