{"id":29683,"date":"2017-10-05T08:50:10","date_gmt":"2017-10-05T06:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/?p=29683"},"modified":"2018-11-13T10:03:07","modified_gmt":"2018-11-13T09:03:07","slug":"transparency-is-core-feature-of-new-council-of-europe-guidelines-on-participation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/2017-10-05\/transparency-is-core-feature-of-new-council-of-europe-guidelines-on-participation\/","title":{"rendered":"Transparency is core feature of new Council of Europe Guidelines on participation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Madrid, 5 October 2017 <\/em>\u2013 Access Info Europe has welcomed the inclusion of core access to information principles in the Council of Europe\u2019s Guidelines on public participation in decision making<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Guidelines, published last week on the eve of Right to Know Day (27 September 2017), include two of the pro-transparency organisation\u2019s recommendations submitted during the 2016 public consultation: the need for timely provision of information and the narrow application of possible exceptions to access.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the adoption of these guidelines, members of the Council of Europe must push to bridge the gap between citizens and decision makers, by enabling public participation in decision making alongside the adoption of ambitious transparency and accountability mechanisms<\/em>,\u201d stated Andreas Pavlou, Campaigner and Researcher at Access Info Europe.<\/p>\n

Overall, the Guidelines incorporate four recommendations that form part of Access Info\u2019s campaign to increase transparency of decision-making processes around Europe, namely:
\n\u00bb<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0Transparency applies to all<\/strong>: All public bodies responsible for decision making should be subject to access to information laws;
\n\u00bb<\/strong><\/span> Better Proactive Publication<\/strong>: Proactive publication is essential for timely participation;
\n\u00bb<\/strong><\/span> Rapid responses to requests<\/strong>: Timely provision of information and prompt responses to requests facilitate public participation;
\n\u00bb<\/strong><\/span> Apply exceptions narrowly<\/strong>: Exceptions to access should be applied narrowly and take into account any overriding public interest in disclosure.<\/p>\n

There is no explicit reference to create records \u2013 something that research<\/a> has found to be a significant problem in various Council of Europe countries \u2013 and hence Access Info is recommending that public authorities pay particular attention to document decision-making processes.<\/p>\n

\u201cA failure to keep detailed records of things like minutes of meetings and justifications of the basis for decisions, risks limiting participation and undermining accountability<\/em>,\u201d added Pavlou.<\/p>\n

The Guidelines for civil participation in political decision making were adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 27 September 2017 at the 1295th meeting of the Ministers\u2019 Deputies.<\/p>\n

You can find the Guidelines here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

Luisa Izuzquiza<\/strong>, Communications Officer | Access Info Europe
\nor
\nAndreas Pavlou<\/strong>, Campaigner and Researcher | Access Info Europe<\/p>\n

Send an e-mail<\/a> or call +34\u202f913\u202f656\u202f558<\/p>\n

Photo: Congress of local and regional authorities<\/a> via Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Madrid, 5 October 2017 \u2013 Access Info Europe has welcomed the inclusion of core access to information principles in the Council of Europe\u2019s Guidelines on public participation in decision making. The Guidelines, published last week on the eve of Right to Know Day (27 September 2017), include two of the pro-transparency organisation\u2019s recommendations submitted during the 2016 public consultation: the need for timely provision of information and the narrow application of possible exceptions to access. \u201cWith the adoption of these guidelines, members of the Council of Europe must push to bridge the gap between citizens and decision makers, by enabling<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":29684,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[201,125,51],"tags":[1002,685,681,1003,913,178],"class_list":["post-29683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dmt","category-eut","category-article","tag-coe","tag-council-of-europe","tag-decision-making-transparency","tag-guidelines","tag-participation","tag-transparency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29683","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=29683"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29688,"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29683\/revisions\/29688"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}