Euronews | 27/07/2017 English - Transparency campaigners have slammed Brussels after a 1,178-day battle to find out how much EU chiefs spend on travel. Access Info Europe (AIE) wants to know how much Jean-Claude Juncker, Federica Mogherini and others spend on moving around for official business. Read more...
Madrid, 27 July 2017 – Access Info has described as extremely regrettable that six months after 120 European citizens requested access to last year’s travel expenses of the 28 EU Commissioners, the Commission has taken a unilateral decision to disclose data just for January and February 2016, and that it will not contemplate any greater transparency. Furthermore, in response to our letter to Vice President Timmermans proposing that this data be published proactively, the Commission has concluded that it “does not see added value in publishing online the detailed travel expenses” as the cost of processing the data “would be
Madrid, 21 July 2017 - Access Info Europe welcomed this week’s ruling from the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union, that the Commission cannot automatically refuse access to whole categories of documents in its possession. The Court confirmed that the EU institutions should always apply the EU’s access to documents rules to any documents they hold, regardless of the original authors. “Sometimes it’s important to confirm basic principles of this fundamental right, such as that if the Commission holds a document, it has to process a request, and there can never be automatic denials, no
[Post first published on the Open Government Partnership Blog] Helen Darbishire, Executive Director Zagreb, 20 July 2017 - “It’s really hard to have put a lot of effort into publishing a citizens’ budget and then to have only ten people click on it,” lamented one official in the Croatian Ministry of Finance. This is a classic challenge facing reformers inside government in many OGP countries, who need to be able to motivate their colleagues to organise data into open, accessible formats for public consumption. In spite of the controversy whirling outside about conflicts of interest in the relationship between
Nacional | 18/07/2017 Croatian / English translation - Nacional: Why did you come in Croatia this time? The first time you were in Zagreb was in 1993 during the difficult wartime. How much did Zagreb and Croatia change since then? Helen: I first came to Zagreb in December 2013 for a meeting of journalists, organized by the Council of Europe, to discuss the ethical challenges facing the media in the context of war. Read the English translation
Date: 17/07/2017 at 18.30h Place: Ateneu Barcelonès, sala Oriol Bohigas
Públic | 17/07/2017 Catalan - Catalunya en Comú ha començat la campanya 'Construïm en comú la Catalunya del futur', una série de debats que s'allargarà fins a l'octubre. Pisarello ha animat al públic "a fer fora al partit del 3%" i apostar per "alternatives progressistes". Read more...
Date: 06/07/2017 Place: Medialab Prado Auditorium, Madrid
Euronews | 28/06/2017 English - Campaigners want to know why Brussels bureaucrats are refusing to release a report on fighting corruption. EU chiefs had promised to report every two years on how well countries in the bloc were battling graft. But, after its first report in 2014, there has been nothing. Read more...