{"id":23661,"date":"2016-07-08T10:30:42","date_gmt":"2016-07-08T08:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.access-info.org\/?p=23661"},"modified":"2018-11-13T10:04:01","modified_gmt":"2018-11-13T09:04:01","slug":"post-it-sized-minutes-of-european-council-meetings-unacceptable-says-access-info","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/2016-07-08\/post-it-sized-minutes-of-european-council-meetings-unacceptable-says-access-info\/","title":{"rendered":"Post it-sized minutes of European Council meetings unacceptable says Access Info Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Madrid,<\/i> 8<\/i> July 2016<\/i> \u2013 Access Info Europe has denounced the European Council\u2019s recurrent lack of detail in its record-keeping, something highlighted by the shockingly minimalist minutes of the 17-18 March 2016 European Council meeting during which the so-called EU-Turkey \u201cagreement\u201d was concluded.<\/p>\n

The minutes of this significant meeting on the refugee crisis, which produced a controversial solution \u2013 many experts have raised doubts about its conformity with EU and international law \u2013 are so brief that they fit into a post it:<\/p>\n

\"Council_Minutes_post-it_\"<\/p>\n

\u201cPost it-size accounts of high-level decision making about vital human rights issues are entirely unacceptable,\u201d commented Helen Darbishire, Executive Director of Access Info.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cTweet-length minutes reduce trust and negatively affect the quality of public debate about the EU, with consequences that have become painfully obvious in recent weeks<\/i>,\u201d added Darbishire.<\/p>\n

Access Info received the minutes in response to an access to documents request<\/a> to the European Council. Another serious obstacle to transparency of decision making is that the minutes of one Council meeting are adopted at the next, in this case on 28-29 June, so that even this sketch account of discussions is only made public three months later.<\/p>\n

Other examples of cryptically brief reporting in the same minutes are:
\n\u00bb<\/strong><\/span> \u201cThe European Council discussed issues related to climate change and energy security.\u201d
\n\u00bb<\/strong><\/span> \u201cThe President of the European Parliament was heard by the European Council.\u201d<\/p>\n

Access Info has produced a series of post-its, tweets, laptop stickers, and inspirational posters based on the content of the minutes. See more here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The pro-transparency organisation is calling on the European Council to be more rigorous and exhaustive in the minutes they produce and to find a way to release more detailed accounts of discussions to the public in a shorter timeframe, thereby taking seriously their EU treaty obligations of transparency and accountability to European citizens.<\/p>\n

For more information please contact:<\/h2>\n

Luisa Izuzquiza<\/strong> | Access Info Europe
\nSend an e-mail<\/a> or call +34\u202f913\u202f656\u202f558<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

See more unusually narrow places in which one can fit the 17-18 March European Council minutes:<\/h2>\n

A sticker!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Council_Minutes_sticker_laptop\"<\/p>\n

An inspirational poster!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Council_Minutes_poster\"<\/p>\n

A tweet!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Council_Minutes_tweet\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Madrid, 8 July 2016 \u2013 Access Info Europe has denounced the European Council\u2019s recurrent lack of detail in its record-keeping, something highlighted by the shockingly minimalist minutes of the 17-18 March 2016 European Council meeting during which the so-called EU-Turkey \u201cagreement\u201d was concluded. The minutes of this significant meeting on the refugee crisis, which produced a controversial solution \u2013 many experts have raised doubts about its conformity with EU and international law \u2013 are so brief that they fit into a post it: \u201cPost it-size accounts of high-level decision making about vital human rights issues are entirely unacceptable,\u201d commented Helen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":23664,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[201,125,51,928],"tags":[751,813,691,814,815,695],"class_list":["post-23661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dmt","category-eut","category-article","category-ref","tag-eu-turkey","tag-european-council","tag-migration","tag-minutes-of-meetings","tag-record-keeping","tag-refugees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23661","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=23661"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23684,"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23661\/revisions\/23684"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}