Civil society calls on Commission to respect right of access to EU documents Brussels/Madrid, 14 June 2012 – Civil society organisations and international freedom of information experts have today called on the European Commission to publicly affirm that it respects the right of access to EU documents by taking a clear stand against the inappropriate remarks made last week by official Commission spokesperson, Antonio Gravili. On Friday 8 June Mr Gravili was quoted by the EUobserver.com, characterising the debate around the reform of the EU’s access to documents rules as “infantile” and saying that “some people need to grow up”.

One month to save EU transparency  Brussels/Madrid, 31 May 2012 – With tripartite negotiations between the three institutions of the EU going in an anti-transparency direction, Access Info Europe and ClientEarth are calling on NGOs and civil society organisations to sign on to a letter calling for regressive amendments to be withdrawn so that at the very least citizens can still enjoy the current level of EU transparency. Although the revision of the EU access to documents Regulation appears to be on schedule to conclude before the end of the Danish Presidency of the Council – 30 June 2012 –

Threat to EU transparency grows as trilogues begin on access to EU documents Madrid, 11 May 2012 – The threat that the right of access to information from European Union bodies will be reduced moved a step closer to reality yesterday (10 May 2012) when the 27 Member States approved a document from the Danish EU Presidency which would add broad exceptions to the existing rules. The 10 May document obtained today (11 May 2012) by Access Info Europe shows that the “compromise” position adopted by the ambassadors of the EU 27 includes: • Limiting and narrowing the definition of

España debe comprometerse con la transparencia en la reforma del Reglamento europeo Madrid, 11 abril 2012 – Hoy, Access Info Europe y Ecologistas en Acción han instado al gobierno español a que se posicione claramente a favor de una mayor transparencia dentro de la Unión Europea, en consonancia con el actual proceso abierto para aprobar la ley estatal de transparencia. El Reglamento europeo de Acceso a Documentos (1049/2001) permite a los ciudadanos presentar solicitudes de acceso a los documentos de la Unión Europea directamente a las instituciones y les obliga a responder en un plazo de 15 días. Actualmente está

Renewed Threat on Access to EU Documents – EU Transparency Campaign 10 April 2012 – After a series of inter-governmental negotiations, fears that Member States are using the reform of the EU access to documents regulation as an opportunity to add new exceptions and to weaken the right of access to EU document have recently been renewed by a Council document, dated 30 March 2012, which outlines the “state of play” of the reform process. The paper mentions the very real possibility that new, blanket exceptions for documents “requiring special protection” would be introduced into the Regulation. This would affect

EU Transparency Campaign on the reform of EU access to documents Regulation Access Info Europe is calling for civil society support for the campaign on the reform of the EU access to documents Regulation, which aims to strengthen the right of access to EU documents or, at the very least, to avoid any narrowing of the current right of access to documents. Access Info Europe has prepared a briefing paper setting out the key points where reform of Regulation 1049 is necessary to bring it into line with the TFEU and international standards on the right of access to information,