Madrid, 20 December 2019- A major pan-European project looking into how to reduce corruption in public procurement, including at the local level, is currently underway in four European countries, and is producing it is first results which can be found on the Tenders.Guru website.
Madrid, 18 December 2019 – Access Info Europe today welcomed the re-election of Ms Emily O’Reilly as European Ombudsman for another 5 years, after a competitive open process in which she won in the third round of voting by the European Parliament, receiving 320 votes out of 600 votes cast. In the run up to the election, Access Info wrote to all MEPS, urging them to support the candidate with the strongest track record in working for transparency and openness of the European institutions, and stressing that Ms O’Reilly had demonstrated her commitment to advancing the right of access to
Brussels, 12 December 2019- Access Info today joined the organisation GONG (Croatia) and 33 other NGOs from across Europe in calling on the incoming Croatian Presidency of the European Union to act to ensure legislative and lobby transparency, and in particular to ensure transparency of the Council of the EU. The organisations note that at least half of all laws passing through national parliaments are related to norms and directives adopted at the EU level, and yet without transparency of the Council, it is almost impossible for citizens at the national level to engage in debate at the root
Madrid, 10 December 2019 – Access Info presents today at the pre-session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva its report on the violations of the Right of Access to Information and Freedom of Expression that take place in Spain. Joan Barata, expert on freedom of expression and member of the Platform in Defence of Freedom of Information (PDLI), presents the report to the Council today. This report was sent to the Council in July 2019 and was prepared in collaboration with PDLI, the Federation of Journalists' Unions (FeSP), the Criminal Policy Study Group (GEPC) and the Research
Madrid, 10 December 2019 – Five years after Spain’s transparency law came into force on International Human Rights Days, 10 December 2014, Access Info urged the Spanish government to take bolder steps towards complying with international standards on this fundamental right, and to ensure citizens can exercise their right to information without the multiple obstacles that are currently resulting in serious underuse of the law. Access Info highlighted the low number of requests – under 5,000 per year at the central government level, and with a shocking 69% of requests being made by men, just 26% by women and the
Brussels, 28 November 2019 - The incoming president of the European Council, Charles Michel has been called on to commit to full transparency of lobbying, in a letter sent today by Access Info Europe, along with 30 civil society organisations members of the ALTER-EU lobby transparency platform. The letter, coordinated by ALTER-EU (The Alliance for Lobby Transparency and Ethics Regulation) also calls for action on enforcing the rule of law, avoiding corporate capture, and boosting ethics regulation. Particularly important is the call for the President of the Council to publish proactively, in full, a list of all meetings that he
Madrid, 22 November 2019 – Access Info Europe has lodged an appeal to Malta’s Information and Data Protection Appeals Tribunal after an access to documents request was refused due to the fact that the requester is not a resident in Malta. In the appeal, Access Info argues that residency requirements are a violation of the fundamental right to freedom of expression and information, and calls for Malta's Freedom of Information Act to be brought into line with international standards. The case began when the Ministry for Home Affairs and National Security in Malta refused to register a request sent by
Date: 13-14/11/2019 Place: Podgorica, Montenegro
Date: 11-12 /11/2019 Place: Madrid, Spain
Madrid, 6 November 2019 – In advance of the 10 November general elections in Spain, Access Info has been in touch with the main political parties to urge them to strengthen the Transparency Law (which came into force on 10 December 2014), and to adopt laws on regulation of lobbying and on whistleblower protection. Access Info asked all the political parties for meetings. We were able to meet with Ciudadanos, Junts per Catalunya, Más País and Podemos. To the remaining parties – ERC, IU, PNV, PP, PSOE, VOX – we sent a document with the 10 Principles of the Coalición