Madrid, 21 October 2019 – The Community of Madrid has announced that it will henceforth publish proactively sanctions imposed on the nearly 500 old people’s homes in the Madrid region – sanctions for offences such as breaching food, hygiene, or care standards – but only after an investigation by journalists from El País newspaper, who had to win a case before Spain’s Transparency Council in order to obtain the information. Access Info Europe welcomed the proactive publication of the data on the quality of care and standards in old people’s homes, noting that such information is absolutely essential for families

Madrid, 30 July 2019 – The “Think and Do Tank” CIECODE has taken first prize in an EU-funded competition to develop a software tool that aids citizen participation The competition was organised by Access Info and its partners as part of the YOU4EU project, run under the EU’s Europe for Citizens programme. The winning application "Personal Political Analyst” was developed with the collaboration of Open Government Chair of Polytechnical University of Valencia and the Valencia Provincial Council. It is a voice assistant built on top of Google Platform that allows queries and consultations of the electoral promises made by the

Madrid, 24 April 2019 - For several years, as a member of the Poletika platform, Access Info Europe has evaluated the transparency commitments in the election manifestos of Spain’s political parties. These evaluations are published on Poletika’s webpage as part of the section on Democratic Quality (in Spanish: Calidad Democrática). In line with our commitment to transparency, we are publishing the methodology by which we made these evaluations. The evaluation is divided into five sub categories of equal importance, each assessed on a 2-point rating system for a total of 10 possible points. Recognition of access to information as a

Madrid, 5 April 2019 – In its comments submitted to the public consultation on the draft Regulation for Spain’s 2013 Transparency Law, Access Info has urged the government to take the opportunity to strengthen the right of access to information, with measures such as simplifying the request procedures. Specifically, Access Info has recommended that the new Regulation permit requests by email in place of the current complicated process whereby only persons with a an electronic ID or digital certificate and make requests via the Transparency Portal. “It is especially worrying that in Spain so few requests are made because of