EU Transparency

13 Jul 2020

Why continued support for transparency is essential to recovering from the coronavirus crisis

Helen Darbishire2020-07-13T10:08:05+02:00

Madrid, 13 July 2020 – Access Info Europe has joined 83 civil society organisations from around the world in calling on donors to continue funding transparency and accountability in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing economic crisis. In an open letter, the signatories welcomed efforts by donors to redirect funds towards potential new needs arising from the covid-19 pandemic, but also stressed the need to keep investment in civil society work on access to information and data disclosure during the recovery phase and beyond. “It has become crystal clear during the past four months that transparent, open,

Why continued support for transparency is essential to recovering from the coronavirus crisisHelen Darbishire2020-07-13T10:08:05+02:00

9 Jul 2020

Pro Bono Network: Lawyers for Transparency

Helen Darbishire2021-06-02T13:07:03+02:00

Madrid, 9 July 2020 – Access Info Europe has created a pro bono legal network of lawyers from across Europe with varying legal backgrounds who are willing to offer assistance to requesters seeking access to EU documents, in particular journalists and civil society organisations. The first training of these lawyers took place on 8 June 2020, when the pro bono lawyers heard from lawyers who are leading experts in EU transparency. Onno Brouwer and Elske Raedts, addressed the main exceptions used to withhold documents at the EU level and identified key pro transparency cases from the Court of Justice of

Pro Bono Network: Lawyers for TransparencyHelen Darbishire2021-06-02T13:07:03+02:00

1 Jun 2020

AsktheEU Pro, the all-in-one FOI toolkit for professional journalists and researchers

Helen Darbishire2020-08-11T10:56:26+02:00

Madrid, 1 June 2020 - Pro-transparency human rights organisation Access Info Europe is glad to launch AsktheEU Pro, an improved version of the AsktheEU.org account designed to upgrade journalists and researchers’ experience when requesting access to documents from the EU bodies and institutions. The new advanced functionalities of the platform include the possibility for Pro users to keep requests and responses private for 3, 6 or 12 months’ periods, which can be extended for an unlimited number of times. Access Info believes that this will help journalists and researchers wishing to keep their stories or investigations confidential before they are

AsktheEU Pro, the all-in-one FOI toolkit for professional journalists and researchersHelen Darbishire2020-08-11T10:56:26+02:00

21 Apr 2020

Council of the European Union maintains timeframes for responding to access to documents requests

Helen Darbishire2020-04-27T18:00:54+02:00

Madrid, 21 April 2020 – Access Info today welcomed the announcement by the Council of the European Union that it will continue to process requests for documents, doing its best to adhere to the 15 working day timeframe, during the ongoing coronavirus crisis. A message from the Secretariat General’s Transparency team reads: The General Secretariat of the Council continues to support the political work, with some key services having to be present. Thanks to digital technology, the majority of staff remains fully operational. For the Transparency team, this means that we continue to deal with all requests for access to

Council of the European Union maintains timeframes for responding to access to documents requestsHelen Darbishire2020-04-27T18:00:54+02:00

8 Apr 2020

EU urged to improve data and debate on gender equality

Helen Darbishire2022-10-26T12:40:09+02:00

Madrid, 8 April 2020 – Access Info Europe today called on the European Commission to collect and publish more data on gender equality, after finding low levels of gender data publication across Europe and revealing that the EU’s Statistical Office Eurostat has excluded various gender-related indicators as not relevant. In letters sent to Helena Dalli, EU Commissioner for Equality, and Paolo Gentiloni, EU Commissioner for Economy in charge of Eurostat and coordination of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Access Info noted that little over half (57%) of the SDG gender-related indicators are published in the European region, as shown

EU urged to improve data and debate on gender equalityHelen Darbishire2022-10-26T12:40:09+02:00

5 Mar 2020

Call for Transparency of Frontex

Helen Darbishire2020-05-04T10:04:56+02:00

Madrid/Brussels, 5 March 2020 – Access Info Europe today joined Open Knowledge Germany and more than 40 civil society organisations in calling on the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) to stop imposing legal fees on activists and human rights defenders in order to prevent them from exercising their right to access information. In a letter sent to the Frontex Director, Fabrice Leggeri, and the Head of Legal and Procurement Unit, Hervé Caniard, the organisations ask the EU agency to retract the lawyers’ bill passed to activists Luisa Izuzquiza and Arne Semsrott, who had presented the first access to

Call for Transparency of FrontexHelen Darbishire2020-05-04T10:04:56+02:00

2 Mar 2020

Frontex Legal Bill Risks Chilling Effect on Defence of Transparency

Helen Darbishire2020-03-05T16:39:37+01:00

2 March 2020 – Access Info today expressed its concern at the high lawyers’ bill of €23,700.81 sent by the EU’s border agency Frontex to transparency activists Luisa Izuzquiza and Arne Semsrott, after they lost an access to documents case at the Court of Justice of the European Union. The bill is for outside legal assistance as well as travel costs, although no breakdown of the precise elements has been received. The case related to a request for access to documents about naval operations carried out by Frontex in the Mediterranean as part of border control of trafficking and rescue

Frontex Legal Bill Risks Chilling Effect on Defence of TransparencyHelen Darbishire2020-03-05T16:39:37+01:00

27 Feb 2020

European Commission publishes Commissioners’ Expenses historical data after advocacy by Access Info

Helen Darbishire2020-02-27T12:17:17+01:00

27 February 2020 – Access Info Europe today welcomed the online publication of the European Commissioners' Mission Expenses from December 2017 to December 2019, which had been previously taken offline by the European Commission. The renewed publication of the data comes after Access Info denounced its non-availability, submitted a formal request for it via that AsktheEU.org platform, and wrote to Commissioner Vera Jourová, in charge of Values and Transparency; no response has yet been received to that letter. “We are pleased to see that minimum standards of transparency have been restored, in line with the 2017 Commission commitment to publish

European Commission publishes Commissioners’ Expenses historical data after advocacy by Access InfoHelen Darbishire2020-02-27T12:17:17+01:00

13 Feb 2020

Call for Transparency of the EU Court of Justice

Helen Darbishire2020-02-13T18:16:50+01:00

Madrid, 12 February 2020 – Access Info today joined the organisation The Good Lobby, and nearly 250 signatories in sending an open letter to the President of the European Court of Justice, asking for their hearings to be live streamed so that there is genuine transparency in the Court's proceedings. The letter to the Court President, Konen Lenaerts, draws attention to the need of restore citizens' trust in judicial system "at a time of growing, and worrisome, populistic attacks on the judicial branch across the EU." The signatories denounce the lack of transparency of the Court's hearings, which prevents European

Call for Transparency of the EU Court of JusticeHelen Darbishire2020-02-13T18:16:50+01:00

5 Feb 2020

European Commission takes historical expenses data offline! Access Info publishes expenses of the previous Commission.

Helen Darbishire2020-02-06T12:05:48+01:00

Madrid/Brussels, 5 February 2020 – Access Info Europe today condemned the removal from the European Commission website of all the previous travel expenses data of Commissioners, and has written a letter to Commissioner Vera Jourová, who is charged with Values and Transparency, calling for publication of the historical and current expenses data in an accessible, user-friendly format, in real time. Breaching a 2017 commitment to publish Commissioners' mission expenses data, a commitment that itself came about after a three-year campaign for transparency by the Madrid-based organisation Access Info Europe, the Commission has now archived all the previously published data to

European Commission takes historical expenses data offline! Access Info publishes expenses of the previous Commission.Helen Darbishire2020-02-06T12:05:48+01:00