{"id":30132,"date":"2017-12-20T15:53:11","date_gmt":"2017-12-20T14:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/?p=30132"},"modified":"2018-11-13T09:38:35","modified_gmt":"2018-11-13T08:38:35","slug":"european-commission-should-stop-requiring-requesters-to-provide-postal-addresses-says-european-ombudsman-in-case-brought-by-access-info","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/2017-12-20\/european-commission-should-stop-requiring-requesters-to-provide-postal-addresses-says-european-ombudsman-in-case-brought-by-access-info\/","title":{"rendered":"European Ombudsman Decision: Commission should stop requiring requesters to provide postal addresses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Madrid, 20 December 2017<\/em> \u2013 In response to a complaint by Access Info Europe<\/a>, the European Ombudsman has concluded<\/a> that the European Commission\u2019s practice of verifying the identity of persons making requests for access to documents by asking for their postal addresses is \u201cdisrespectful of citizens and their fundamental rights under the EU Charter\u201d and constitutes \u00abmaladministration\u00bb.<\/p>\n

The Ombudsman’s formal Decision<\/a> dismisses the Commission’s arguments that its April 2014 postal addresses policy is necessary to prevent \u201cabuse of the right to public access\u201d as well as to ensure \u201clegal certainty\u201d in delivering answers, arguments that the Ombudsman says she \u00abconsiders to be wrong on the facts and the law.\u00bb<\/p>\n

In line with this policy, the Commission has been refusing to register or process requests sent by email or via AsktheEU.org<\/a> unless and until a postal address is provided; the Commission also started sending copies of answers by post, sometimes even using expensive couriers such as DHL.<\/p>\n

Access Info welcomes the Ombudsman\u2019s Decision as well as her observation that \u201cthe Commission\u2019s practice is archaic for the 21st\u00a0century\u201d and that the Commission\u2019s practice \u201ccontradicts its own advice that the EU administration itself fully embraces the digital age and maximizes the use of electronic communication.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis Decision is important because it\u2019s about the basic right of Europe\u2019s 512 million citizens to ask the EU for information in the easiest way possible<\/em>,\u201d explained Helen Darbishire, Executive Director of Access Info.<\/p>\n

\u00abAs the Ombudsman says, the choice of how to request and receive information should be made by the citizen. For many, postal mail is a redundant form of communication<\/em>,\u00bb added Darbishire.<\/p>\n

Access Info has seen numerous problems caused by the postal addresses policy, including that it slows down the registration of requests, is a disincentive for requesters who can feel intimidated by being asked where they live, and has resulted in information being sent only by post rather than in digital format by email.<\/p>\n

Access Info has also argued consistently it doesn\u2019t matter who is asking for information because this is a fundamental right which can be exercised by any European citizen: if information is public for one person then it’s public for everyone!<\/p>\n

The Ombudsman’s Decision on the European Commission’s postal addresses policy is available here: \"alt\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For more information, please contact:<\/h4>\n

Helen Darbishire |<\/strong> Executive Director |<\/strong> Access Info Europe
\nby email<\/a> or on mobile number: +34 667 685 319<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Madrid, 20 December 2017 \u2013 In response to a complaint by Access Info Europe, the European Ombudsman has concluded that the European Commission\u2019s practice of verifying the identity of persons making requests for access to documents by asking for their postal addresses is \u201cdisrespectful of citizens and their fundamental rights under the EU Charter\u201d and constitutes \u00abmaladministration\u00bb. The Ombudsman’s formal Decision dismisses the Commission’s arguments that its April 2014 postal addresses policy is necessary to prevent \u201cabuse of the right to public access\u201d as well as to ensure \u201clegal certainty\u201d in delivering answers, arguments that the Ombudsman says she \u00abconsiders<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":30157,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eut","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30132","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=30132"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30165,"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30132\/revisions\/30165"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.access-info.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}