Access Info Europe today joined Corporate Europe Observatory, Transparência e Integridade and 63 other civil society organisations from across Europe, calling on the incoming Portuguese Presidency of the European Union to push for much needed lobby transparency, accountability and democratic reforms within the Council.
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Madrid, 5 October 2017 – Access Info Europe has welcomed the inclusion of core access to information principles in the Council of Europe’s Guidelines on public participation in decision making. The Guidelines, published last week on the eve of Right to Know Day (27 September 2017), include two of the pro-transparency organisation’s recommendations submitted during the 2016 public consultation: the need for timely provision of information and the narrow application of possible exceptions to access. “With the adoption of these guidelines, members of the Council of Europe must push to bridge the gap between citizens and decision makers, by enabling
Madrid, 4 de octubre de 2017 – Access Info Europe y Transparencia Internacional España instan a los grupos parlamentarios a que la regulación del lobby en el Congreso de los Diputados garantice la transparencia y la rendición de cuentas en la toma de decisiones, en línea con los estándares internacionales. Las organizaciones han valorado positivamente la reanudación del debate sobre la regulación de la actividad de los lobbies a través de la Proposición de reforma del Reglamento del Congreso de los Diputados presentada por el Grupo Parlamentario Popular. Sin embargo, consideran que el alcance del actual texto es muy limitado,
Brussels, 29 September 2017 – Members of the European Parliament together with CSOs, academics, and journalists from across the EU have called for greater openness of decision making and full transparency of spending of public funds in the final declaration of an International Right to Know Day event held on 28 September 2017. The closing statement of the expert, high-level event, organised by the European Parliament’s cross-party Transparency and Anti-Corruption Intergroup (ITCO) along with Access Info Europe and Anticor Belgium, also called for full respect for the right of access to information, and urged all EU Member States to align
Madrid, 18 March 2017 – On the first anniversary of the EU-Turkey deal, Access Info called for greater transparency of the decision making process of the agreement and condemned the inadequate record keeping and misleading statements. One year after concluding the agreement, stranded asylum seekers, human rights and humanitarian organisations, and the general public, are still denied even the most basic information about this agreement, including who is really responsible for it. Confusion increased on 1 March 2017 when the European Court of Justice ruled that the statement (press release) was “regrettably ambiguous” because in fact the agreement is between
Madrid, 18 March 2017 - As I sat at the Access Info Europe offices on the 1st of March reading the latest Order of the General Court of the European Union, I could not help but shake my head every other minute in disbelief. In a case brought by an Afghan refugee threatened with expulsion from Greece against the European Council, the Court had just proclaimed that the EU-Turkey agreement is not a measure adopted by the European Council or any EU institution for that matter, but rather by the EU Member States. Luisa Izuzquiza,Communications Officer If
[Article first published by Progressive Economy @ TASC] Dublin, 13 December 2016 - While historical archives are a rich part of our cultural heritage, there are many day-to-day reasons why we should care about how governments and public bodies currently make and keep records of their actions and decisions. At a very basic level, records and are vital for good administration and efficiency. Records – like minutes of meetings, briefing documents and memos – tell us what, where and when something was done and why a decision was made. Records also provide a ‘paper trail’ of evidence for accountability purposes,
Madrid, 2 de diciembre de 2016 – Access Info Europe lleva a la Comisión Europea ante el Tribunal de Justicia de la Unión Europea (TJUE) para obtener el análisis jurídico que recibió esta institución sobre el controvertido acuerdo UE-Turquía sobre la devolución de refugiados a Turquía. El acuerdo del 18 de marzo de 2016 – oficialmente, una “declaración”, y que está teniendo un impacto directo en las vidas de miles de migrantes y demandantes de asilo que huyen de la guerra – fue muy criticado por las organizaciones de defensa de los derechos humanos por no cumplir con los estándares
[Article first published by the Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso] Long established and widely recognized, the right to access to information is severely curtailed in many European countries due to deficient implementation of existing law In case you missed it, this year marks the 250th anniversary since the world’s first transparency law was adopted, in Sweden in 1766. At a quick glance, it seems we have a lot to celebrate in Europe – every country on the continent (bar Cyprus and Luxembourg which have draft laws) now has a transparency law that gives citizens the right of access to government-held information.