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Ausencia de propuestas concretas y firmes en el borrador del II Plan de Acción de Gobierno Abierto

2018-11-13T10:11:48+01:00

Madrid, 11 de junio de 2014 – Access Info Europe ha enviado esta semana sus comentarios al borrador del II Plan de Acción de España para la Alianza para el Gobierno Abierto (OGP, en sus siglas en inglés). El borrador quedó abierto a consulta pública tras su presentación el pasado mes de mayo; no obstante, cabe destacar que el proceso de consulta abierto por el Gobierno ha sido muy deficiente. Tal y como apunta el comentario enviado, el Plan de Acción carece de propuestas firmes y concretas para lograr un real avance en temas de Gobierno Abierto en España. En

Ausencia de propuestas concretas y firmes en el borrador del II Plan de Acción de Gobierno Abierto2018-11-13T10:11:48+01:00

Legal Leaks Challenge: Write Your Access To Information Story

2018-11-13T10:11:49+01:00

Madrid, 24 July 2014 – As part of the Legal Leaks trainings which has taken place during the month of June in five different countries in the Balkans – Kosovo, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia -, Access Info Europe and UNESCO, in partnership with the EU Commission, has organised a challenge for journalists taking part in these courses. What is the challenge about? Journalists shall write a story based on one or more access to information requests they have previously made. The article will have to be written in English, and will be a maximum of 2000 words

Legal Leaks Challenge: Write Your Access To Information Story2018-11-13T10:11:49+01:00

Legal Leaks trainings: enhancing media accountability in the Balkans

2018-11-13T10:11:49+01:00

Madrid, 2 June 2014 – UNESCO and Access Info Europe will be carrying out a series of Legal Leaks trainings during the following month of June in five different Balkans countries, including Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo. The Legal Leaks trainings are meant to empower journalists to use their national freedom of information laws as a regular part of their work. The training provides guidance on how to file freedom of information requests and contributes to protect media freedom by delivering techniques by which journalists can protect the security of their data and of confidential sources of

Legal Leaks trainings: enhancing media accountability in the Balkans2018-11-13T10:11:49+01:00

European Commission attempting to block citizens’ requests via AsktheEU.org

2018-11-13T10:11:49+01:00

Madrid, 2 June 2014 – The European Commission is impeding the public's right to submit access to documents requests via the AsktheEU.org web portal by refusing to register requests which are not accompanied by a postal address. AsktheEU.org, which is run by Access Info Europe, was launched in September 2011 with the aim of making the requesting process more transparent. It is set up to work via email, with requests and responses published online in real time. Hence it does not currently have the capacity to deliver postal addresses without making them public. The Commission in early May started to

European Commission attempting to block citizens’ requests via AsktheEU.org2018-11-13T10:11:49+01:00

Politics for People Campaign: Now is time for new MEPs to tackle Corporate Lobbying

2018-11-13T10:11:49+01:00

Brussels, Madrid, Cologne, 30 May 2014 – Civil society groups from across Europe this week called on newly elected Members of the European Parliament to make an urgent priority of tackling the problem of corporate lobbying in the next parliamentary term. The call by members of the Alliance for Lobby Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER_EU), of which Access Info Europe is a Steering Committee member, went out to all 751 new MEPs and in particular to the 174 who signed a pre-election pledge under the Politics for People campaign to ‘’stand-up for citizens and democracy against the excessive lobbying influence

Politics for People Campaign: Now is time for new MEPs to tackle Corporate Lobbying2018-11-13T10:11:49+01:00

One third of new Spanish MEPs have committed to increasing transparency and controlling lobbying in Brussels

2018-11-13T10:11:49+01:00

Madrid, 26 May 2014 – One third (31%) of the newly-elected Spanish MEPs have already committed to promoting transparency and regulating lobbying in Brussels, the result of a pre-election pledge campaign run in Spain by Access Info Europe. In advance of the elections, 13 of the 54 new MEPs (24%) signed a pledge to "stand up for citizens and democracy against the excessive lobbying influence of banks and big business."A further 4 candidates did not sign the pledge but had lobbying regulation and transparency in their election manifesto. Elected Candidates Who Signed the Politics for People Pledge, by Party: ›

One third of new Spanish MEPs have committed to increasing transparency and controlling lobbying in Brussels2018-11-13T10:11:49+01:00

Civil society calls for full transparency about EU-US trade negotiations

2018-11-13T10:11:50+01:00

Madrid, 26 May 2014 – More than 250 civil society organisations worldwide, including Access Info Europe, today called on the European Commission to make the negotiations on the future Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) open and transparent. The TTIP is the biggest bilateral trade agreement ever negotiated and it will have significant effects on the economy, the environment and the future of citizens on both sides of the Atlantic and beyond. There is a clear public interest in being able to follow these negotiations, and yet, since they started, they have taken place behind a veil of secrecy, with

Civil society calls for full transparency about EU-US trade negotiations2018-11-13T10:11:50+01:00

UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office cancels court hearing and promises complete information on EU transparency negotiations

2018-11-13T10:11:50+01:00

Madrid, 22 May 2014 – The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has pulled out of a case before the UK’s Information Tribunal resulting in cancellation of a court hearing due this week (20-21 May) and has agreed to provide Access Info Europe with full information on negotiations in Brussels to revise the European Union’s transparency rules. The specialised Information Tribunal issued a formal decision on 21 May 2014 closing a four-year legal process arising from an information request first made on 15 June 2010 by Access Info Europe Campaigner Pam Bartlett Quintanilla. Just three weeks before the court hearing

UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office cancels court hearing and promises complete information on EU transparency negotiations2018-11-13T10:11:50+01:00

Over 110 Spanish MEP candidates pledge to stand-up for citizens against excessive lobbying influence

2018-11-13T10:11:50+01:00

Madrid, 21 May 2014 – The campaign to get future members of the European Parliament to commit to support the regulation and transparency of lobbying has been a huge success in Spain with 116 MEP candidates signing the pledge to “stand-up for citizens and democracy against the excessive lobbying influence of banks and big business”. This number of signatories in Spain is the third highest in Europe, reaching 10% of the total of 1100 MEP candidates who signed the “Politics for People” pledge. The two countries with more MEP candidate pledges are Germany (250) and Austria (157). The pledge campaign

Over 110 Spanish MEP candidates pledge to stand-up for citizens against excessive lobbying influence2018-11-13T10:11:50+01:00

AsktheEU.org Report on Council of the European Union: Transparency problems exposed

2018-11-13T10:11:50+01:00

Madrid/Brussels, 19 May 2014 – The Council of the EU is failing to comply with EU transparency rules by not respecting time frames for responding, applying too many extensions to requests, and not informing all requesters of their right to appeal when information is denied, according to a report published today by Access Info Europe. Analysis of 50 access to documents requests submitted to the Council between 2011 and 2013 via the AsktheEU.org platform, found that the average time for answering was 20 working days, significantly over the maximum 15 working days permitted by EU law. Requests which resulted in

AsktheEU.org Report on Council of the European Union: Transparency problems exposed2018-11-13T10:11:50+01:00