{"id":11575,"date":"2012-03-26T15:02:15","date_gmt":"2012-03-26T15:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/s1-advancing-the-right-to-know\/c3-spain\/11575"},"modified":"2018-11-13T10:13:22","modified_gmt":"2018-11-13T09:13:22","slug":"spain-draft-transaprency-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/2012-03-26\/spain-draft-transaprency-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Draft Spanish access to information law contains excessive exceptions and falls below international standards"},"content":{"rendered":"

Madrid, 26 March 2012 <\/em>\u2013 The Spanish government today opened for public consultation the draft \u201cLaw on Transparency, Access to Public Information, and Good Governance<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Specialist NGO Access Info Europe welcomed the law and unprecedented consultation but noted that serious improvements are needed to bring the law into line with international standards, in particular by revising the definition of information which establishes excessive exceptions thereby excluding large quantities of information from the right to request access.<\/p>\n

The law together with information on the public consultation is available here<\/a>.
\nA copy can be downloaded here \"file_pdf\"<\/a> \"file_doc\"<\/a> \"odf2odt-16x16\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Spain is the only EU country with more than one million inhabitants not to have an access to information law. Access Info Europe, together with the 54 NGOs in the Coalici\u00f3n Pro Acceso, has been campaigning for over five years for a law.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpain is one of the last democratic countries in the world to adopt an access to information law and it really should be in line with the minimum international standards such as the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents<\/em>,\u201d said Helen Darbishire, Executive Director of Access Info Europe.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope that the government will take into account the comments by the public and that the law will be significantly improved before its presentation at the Open Government Partnership in Brazil in mid-April<\/em>,\u201d added Darbishire.<\/p>\n

Access Info Europe noted that positive features of the law include a series of dedicated provisions on proactive publication of information and the creation of a transparency portal.<\/p>\n

Key concerns about the law include:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Scope<\/strong>: The law applies to a wide range of public bodies and private bodies performing public functions but it does not apply <\/strong>to non-administrative information held by the judicial and legislative branches. The law also does not apply to the Royal Family, which has a public role in Spain and has been damaged by recent corruption scandals.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Definition of information<\/strong>: The definition of information excludes information which \u201caffects\u201d interests such as national security, defence, external relations, public security, and criminal investigations. Such information cannot even be requested and requests will be rejected. There is no harm or public interest test<\/strong>. This makes it impossible for Spain to sign the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents with the current text.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Excluded information<\/strong>: There are, however a series of what are called \u201cexceptions\u201d which are in fact limitations on the definition of information which includes \u201cnotes, drafts, opinions, summaries, reports and communications within or between public bodies\u201d which are characterised as having a merely \u201cauxiliary or support\u201d character. In such cases the public bodies will not even process the request for information.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Exceptions:<\/strong> Some of the remaining exceptions are in line with those in the Convention on Access to Official Documents and are subject to a harm test but none carry a public interest test, which again is out of line with the Convention\u2019s requirements.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Excessive Protection of Personal Data<\/strong>: The law gives priority to the data protection, requiring consultation with affected persons and giving the possibility to reject requests which contain large numbers of names making consultation time consuming. On the other hand, this exception does include a public interest test which should be considered to exist when the data relates to the organisation, functioning and activities of public bodies.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Failure to recognise a fundamental right:<\/strong> the law does not link the right to information to the right to freedom of expression in the Spanish constitution, and does not make it a fundamental right.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Justifying Requests<\/strong>: the law contains language which will encourage public bodies to ask for reasons for requests by saying that \u201crequesters may give reasons\u201d although the absence of a reason \u201cwill not in and of itself\u201d be the reason for a refusal.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Administrative Silence is Negative: <\/strong>given the high level of non-responses to information requests in Spain, the fact that a non-answer is interpreted as refusal puts a disproportionate burden on the requester to appeal.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Sanctions:<\/strong> There are no specific sanctions for violations of right of access to information, nor other related offences such as destruction of documents.<\/p>\n

Access Info noted that it is not possible fully to assess the provisions on the oversight body, the \u201cState Agency for Transparency, Evaluation of Public Policy, and Quality of Services\u201d as much of its powers have been left to a regulation.<\/p>\n

For more information- in English or Spanish- please contact: <\/em><\/h2>\n

Helen Darbishire<\/strong>, Executive Director, Access Info Europe<\/p>\n

email: helen@access-info.org<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

tel: + 34 667 685 319<\/p>\n

Victoria Anderica<\/strong>, Legal Researcher and Campaigner, Access Info Europe<\/p>\n

email: victoria@access-info.org<\/a><\/p>\n

tel: 606 59 29 76<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Madrid, 26 March 2012 \u2013 The Spanish government today opened for public consultation the draft \u201cLaw on Transparency, Access to Public Information, and Good Governance\u201d. Specialist NGO Access Info Europe welcomed the law and unprecedented consultation but noted that serious improvements are needed to bring the law into line with international standards, in particular by revising the definition of information which establishes excessive exceptions thereby excluding large quantities of information from the right to request access. The law together with information on the public consultation is available here. A copy can be downloaded here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[126],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-esp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11575"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17805,"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11575\/revisions\/17805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}