Blog

Of the 25 access to documents requests made by citizens to the European Central Bank via AsktheEU.org between September 2011 and August 2013, just eight were successful in obtaining all or some of the information requested. In three instances there was full disclosure of the documents requested. The other five requests were successful even though no documents were provided because the requested correspondence did not exist or the meetings enquired about had never taken place. Five requests concerned documents that the ECB did not hold, and requesters were generally referred to another institution which was likely to possess those documents.

Public participation can change the way public policies are developed, reducing capture by special interest groups, and ensuring that decisions take into account the views and needs of affected communities. Although information alone is not sufficient—additional mechanisms are necessary for receiving input from the public, reviewing it, and providing feedback on how this input was taken into consideration—meaningful participation exercises are contingent on the public having timely access to the same data as the officials making the decision. Participation cannot be effective or equal if individuals have to file requests and wait for an answer. The role of transparency in

Limiting access to information to under-16s goes against the principle of access to information as a fundamental right No one should have their right of access to information restricted due to their age according to Access Info Europe and transparency experts. This declaration follows a meeting between Access Info and authors of a draft transparency law in Catalonia, Spain, who have a provision which would restrict access to information to under-16s. Following the meeting between Catalan representatives and Victoria Anderica, Access Info Europe has published a short report that outlines the arguments against restricting access to information due to age,

The Spanish Transparency, Access to Information and Good Governance Law establishes the rules on the access to information procedures in Article 17, one of which is identifying the identity of the requester. This is not necessarily a problem, given that many access to information laws around the world also ask for such information in order to direct the response directly back to the requester, the difference and real problem in Spain is that access to information is considered an administrative procedure and therefore making requests comes under administrative procedure rules. The following mini report by Access Info outlines the reasons