Blog

Spain: Public Participation in budget-making non-existent,finds international survey Madrid, 20 October 2010 – Spain has scored 63 out of a possible 100 in the Open Budget Index, losing points for weak oversight by the Legislature and the Audit Institution as well as for complete lack of participation in the budgeting process, the pro-transparency organisation Access Info Europe revealed today.

20 October 2010, Madrid – Access Info Europe, along with other members of the Coalición Pro Acceso (the Coalition for an Access to Information law in Spain) will present the results of the 2010 Open Budget Index which has assessed the transparency of budgets in 94 countries and which for the first time this year, includes Spain.

Madrid, 22 September 2010 – Access Info Europe today launched a public consultation on Spain’s draft access to information law following receipt of a leaked copy of the draft law. Responses will be forwarded to the government. Access Info along with the 40 other NGO members of the Coalicion Pro Acceso have been calling for greater transparency around the draft. A letter sent to the government on 20 August 2010 asking for a copy and calling for a public consultation has, to date, gone unanswered.

To celebrate International Right to Know Day on 28 September, Access Info Europe and the Coalición Pro Acceso are holding a public seminar on the right of access to information at the Complutense University in Madrid. Government transparency is a burning issue in Spain, which is the last country in Europe with a population of more than one million not to have an access to information law. On 16tAugust this year, the daily newspaper El País reported leaked information that the draft “Law on Transparency and Citizen Access to Public Information” will soon be passed to the parliament. The urgent