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28 January 2011, Brussels\/London\/Madrid<\/em>: 131 non-governmental organisations along with 56 investigative journalists, academics, and access to information campaigners from 48 countries in Europe and beyond are calling on Members of the European Parliament to act urgently to protect EU transparency rules.1<\/sup> The call comes as the European Union engages in a review of its access to documents regulation that could result in freedom of information being severely curtailed across Europe.<\/p>\n Click here to download the letter that was sent Send an email to pam @ access-info.org or sign up online<\/a><\/p>\n 15:00, 8 February 2011<\/em>, 245 signatures and counting<\/strong>… (146 organisations and 99 individuals). Click here to see the letter’s current status 18 January 2010<\/em> – In the next few weeks, Members of the European Parliament will vote on the Commission of the European Union’s proposed amendments to EU Regulation 1049\/2001 on access to Parliament, Council and Commission Documents.<\/p>\n Given that the Commission’s proposal, if accepted, would actually limit the public’s right to access information in the European Union, Access Info Europe, ClientEarth and Greenpeace prepared a letter urging MEPs to vote against it. In summary, we are calling for the MEPs to:<\/p>\n \u2022 Support measures to align the Regulation with the Lisbon Treaty to extend the scope of the Regulation to all EU bodies, offices and agencies in addition to the institutions ![\"file_pdf\"](\"http:\/\/www.access-info.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/file_pdf.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n* <\/span><\/strong>The letter is still open for signature. We will send it again before the official vote (date tbc):<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n
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\n<\/h2>\nOpen Letter to MEPs Urging Them to Prevent Retrogressive Recast of EU Access to Docs Regulation<\/h2>\n
\u2022 Maintain the current (wider) definition of a document, including access to databases
\u2022 Bring the regulation in line with the relevant pro-transparency decisions of the Court of Justice of the EU – Member States do not have a right of veto over documents submitted by them to the EU, and legal advice from EU institutions in legislative proceedings should be made public
\u2022 Maintain the deadline of 15 days for EU institutions to reply to confirmatory applications and reject the Commission\u2019s proposal to extend this to 30 days.<\/p>\n