El Confidencial | 19/01/2018 Spanish - La desclasificación de 10.000 documentos secretos de la Guerra Civil y la dictadura franquista planteada por la socialista Carme Chacón lleva seis años aparcada en los cajones del Ministerio de Defensa, y así permanecerá a corto plazo. Read more...
This report, Leave No Trace, contains the first comprehensive research into the laws, guidelines, and practices on record keeping across a range of 12 European jurisdictions and the European Commission. It reveals an extremely weak legal infrastructure and hugely variable practice on record keeping, which is undermining the public’s right of access to information: it is impossible to obtain documents that do not exist. The report contains a comparative analysis of the of laws, guidelines, and practices as they relate to the creation and maintenance of information needed for participation and accountability. The direct consequence of the lack of clear-cut
This Legal Analysis, based on a study of the access to information laws in eleven (11) countries and that of the European Union, evaluates the extent to which these laws provide transparency of the documents needed to follow and participate in decision making by public bodies. A valuable resource for academics and activists alike, it has sections on the strength and scope of Europe’s access to information laws, on requirements to create records, and on proactive publication obligations as they relate to documents needed to track decision making. With a focus on key classes of information such as minutes of
El Confidencial | 10/01/2018 Spanish - Los gastos en los que incurren los 751 miembros del Parlamento Europeo serán motivo de debate la semana que viene en las sesiones que se celebrarán en su sede de Estrasburgo. De nuevo, los eurodiputados discutirán sobre la conveniencia o no de rendir cuentas sobre la llamada “dieta para gastos generales” (GEA, por sus siglas en inglés) que les reporta al mes 4.342 euros para mantener oficinas en sus países de origen. Con esa suma pueden alquilar locales, comprar equipos informáticos o pagar facturas de luz y teléfono. Read more...
El Boletín| 07/01/2018 Spanish - La organización por el derecho de acceso a la información Access Info pide al Defensor del Pueblo europeo que exija al Consejo de la UE un aumento “significativo” de la transparencia en el proceso legislativo, con especial hincapié en lo que atañe a las posiciones de cada estado miembro en las negociaciones sobre leyes comunitarias. Read more...
Madrid, 3 January 2018 – Access Info has recommended that the Council of the European Union significantly increase transparency of the legislative process, in particular by providing the public with details on the positions that EU Member States take in negotiations on legislation. These recommendations were submitted to the European Ombudsman’s consultation held as part of her enquiry into transparency of the Council, which is based in large part on the case of Council v. Access Info Europe, won by Access Info on 17 October 2013, in which the Court of Justice of the EU established the right of the
El Confidencial | 25/12/2017 Spanish - Durante todo 2014, los ministerios y las empresas estatales se afanaron en prepararse para la entrada en vigor de la ley de transparencia prevista para diciembre de ese año. Todos lo hicieron adaptando sus sistemas al Portal de la Transparencia y creando las unidades de información (UIT) para la gestión interna de las solicitudes. Read more...
Madrid, 20 December 2017 – In response to a complaint by Access Info Europe, the European Ombudsman has concluded that the European Commission’s practice of verifying the identity of persons making requests for access to documents by asking for their postal addresses is “disrespectful of citizens and their fundamental rights under the EU Charter” and constitutes "maladministration". The Ombudsman's formal Decision dismisses the Commission's arguments that its April 2014 postal addresses policy is necessary to prevent “abuse of the right to public access” as well as to ensure “legal certainty” in delivering answers, arguments that the Ombudsman says she "considers
Madrid, 11 December 2017 - Access Info Europe has today published on its website the minutes of Spain’s weekly Cabinet meetings for the years 1996 to 2017, making them available to the public for the first time in Spanish democratic history. The minutes, which contain the decisions reached in each weekly meeting, were obtained using information requests by Access Info as part of collaborative research with journalist Jesús Escudero, and have been published to mark the third anniversary of the entry into force of Spain’s Transparency Law on 10 December 2014. “This is a huge step forward for Spanish democracy,”
El Confidencial | 30/11/2017 Spanish - Técnicas de interrogación, análisis de documentos o recomendaciones sobre cómo informar de un incidente. La Unión Europea ha reiterado la importancia del respeto a los derechos humanos con los refugiados en el marco de la operación Sophia, actuación que pretende desmantelar las redes de tráfico de inmigrantes en el mar Mediterráneo. En cambio, la formación que ofrece a los "guardacostas" libios, encargados del proceso en alta mar, cubre de forma residual el trato humano con las personas interceptadas. Read more...