Access Info Europe has led for the last year a campaign aimed to create Open Government Standards and promote them around the world. The idea was to set standards on what open, transparent, accountable and participatory government really means. Open Government is a hot topic right now, but what does it really mean in practice? What should government be doing in the areas of Transparency, Participation and Accountability to qualify as “open governments”? What are the uses of new communications technologies, which really advance openness as opposed to merely perpetuating existing bureaucratic practices in a digital environment? Our aim was

Madrid, 22 February 2014 - As open data activists around the world celebrate "Open Data Day" on 22 February 2014, Access Info Europe recalls that Open Data is an integral part of all work to promote open government and has been integrated into the core of the Open Government Standards, which are being promoted by civil society as a framework for determining and evaluating government progress on openness. To mark Open Data Day 2014, Access Info reiterated its call for governments to ensure that all data released in digital formats is made available in an open format. In practice this

Madrid/Halifax, 18 December 2013 - Specialist right to information organisations Access Info Europe and Centre for Law and Democracy led on the drafting of a set of recommendations for progressive improvements to the right to information (RTI) which should be introduced by governments participating in the Open Government Partnership (OGP). These recommendations form the right to information chapter of the Open Government Guide, which was released at the Open Government Partnership Summit in October 2013. In addition to the key recommendation that States should adopt a law giving effect to the right to information which meets international standards, the chapter

Halifax/Madrid, 1 November 2013 - Global right to information organisations Access Info Europe (AIE) and the Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) today called on Open Government Partnership (OGP) Participating Countries to make serious commitments to strengthen their right to information laws in the next round of action plans, due to be presented in April 2014. One of the biggest concerns at the London OGP summit is that governments are not making commitments which will move them beyond the current situation and that they are not being ambitious or “stretching” with planned reforms. This concern is particularly acute in relation

Madrid, 28 October 2013 - Within the framework of the Open Government Partnership, Spain has submitted its self-assessment of its open government commitments made in the April 2012 national action plan. Access Info Europe considers that this first action plan introduced by Spain as well as its self-assessment are of low quality and therefore will accomplish little in Spain's development towards a more open government. On the one hand, the action plan introduced has only four relevant commitments that will directly affect Open Government development in Spain: The approval of a Transparency Law, the Transparency and Accountability of Official Development

1 February 2013 - The Open Government Standards are being drafted through a consultative process amongst civil society organisations across the world that are working to promote open government. The Standards define the measures that different governments must adopt in order to advance and become Open Governments. Participation It means that the public can engage directly in the consideration of policy options and decision making, and contribute ideas and evidence that lead to policies, laws, and decisions which best serve society and broad democratic interests. That governments actively seek to mobilize citizens to engage in public debate, and that mechanisms