Madrid, Wednesday 14 May 2014 – The Spanish government has developed a its second Open Government Action Plan as part of its involvement in the Open Government Partnership, a 64-country initiative promoting transparency, participation, and accountability, and is inviting comments from members of the public to be sent to an email address provided below. Under the Open Government Partnership rules, Spain should hold a full consultation with civil society on the new action plan, something which did not happen with the first action plan in April 2012. To date only a very limited consultation is being planned, with distribution to

Madrid, 14 April 2014 - Access Info Europe today presented a case against Spain at the European Court of Human Rights challenging the refusal to recognise a right of access to information following a seven-year legal battle to obtain information from the Ministry of Justice about anti-corruption measures. The case has been presented to the Strasbourg Court after Spain’s Constitutional Court last year rejected an appeal based on the freedom of expression provisions of the Constitution (Article 20.1.a) and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. “In a country plagued by corruption scandals, the failure to recognise

» Administrative silence increased with respect to 2012 despite the fact institutions should be working already to meet the requirements of the new law » Only 13% of requests received the information asked for » Whilst Spanish Autonomous Communities were better at responding, municipalities and other local levels ignored 81% of requests made – an increase of more than 11% compared to the previous year » Access Info Europe and Fundación Ciudadana Civio present the Tuderechoasaber.es Report 2013, analysing access to information requests sent to Spanish institutions Madrid, 9 April 2014 – In 2013, the year the Spanish Transparency Law

Madrid, 3 April 2014 – Access Info and the Foundation Civio met on Wednesday 2 April 2014 with senior representatives of the Spanish government to discuss a range of transparency issues, including implementation of the access to information law (due to come into force on 10 December 2014), Spain’s second Open Government Partnership Action Plan, and moves by the Spanish Parliament to regulate lobbying. This is the first time in two years that Access Info has had a formal meeting with government representatives to review transparency issues. The meeting was held with State Secretary for Parliamentary Relations, José Luis Ayllón

Artículo publicado por Eva Belmonte en ‘El BOE nuestro de cada día’. Puedes leer su versión original aquí. Madrid, 10 de marzo de 2014 – El pasado 10 de diciembre el BOE recogía la Ley de transparencia, acceso a la información pública y buen gobierno, aprobada un día antes. En el texto se estableció que los apartados relativos a la transparencia de la norma entrarían en vigor en un año, esto es, diciembre de 2014. Para preparar ese camino, el Consejo de Ministros debía aprobar, en el plazo de tres meses desde la publicación en el boletín oficial, un real

Madrid, 3 February 2014 – Access Info Europe today welcomed the European Union’s first anti-corruption report on Spain, which called for measures to strengthen Spain’s transparency law adopted in December 2013 in line with those which civil society has been campaigning for. Access Info Europe today urged the Spanish government to act immediately on the recommendations, which include guaranteeing independence of the appeals body, enhancing sanctions for non-compliance, and a narrower scope of exceptions to the principle of access to information.

Madrid, 2 de diciembre 2013 –  El Congreso de los Diputados el 28 de noviembre de 2013 aprobaba las últimas enmiendas a la ley de transparencia para España. Casi diez años después de que se hiciera la primera promesa electoral la sociedad española estrena una ley de transparencia que se coloca a España en la posición 72 de 96 países con leyes de transparencia. Las reacciones de Access Info Europe, de la Coalición Pro Acceso y de la OSCE van en la misma línea, esta ley es insuficiente. Han sido muchas campañas, la campaña de las 100 preguntas, #preguntaalgobierno, tuderechoasaber.es,

Helen Darbishire, Executive Director, Access Info Europe explains why the new Transparency and Access to Information Law in Spain is particularly weak, and also maps out the political context in which the law was adopted, seeking to explain why the Spanish Government opted for an instrument which will not empower citizens to obtain the information they need for participation and to hold power to account. Download a copy or continue reading. Madrid, 28 November 2013 — The Spanish Government has missed an historic opportunity to adopt an access to information law in line with international standards, instead adopting a law