eu commissioners

2 Feb 2018

European Commission formalises commitment to public travel expenses

Helen Darbishire2018-11-13T10:03:05+01:00

Madrid, 2 February 2018 - The European Commission has formalised its commitment, first pledged in September 2017, to make public the travel expenses of the Commissioners: on 31 January 2018 the new Code of Conduct for the Members of the European Commission was published and it confirms that mission expenses will be published every two months. This commitment in the new Code of Conduct comes exactly one year since, on 27 January 2017, Access Info launched a public campaign calling for publication of the Commissioners’ travel expenses. The campaign attracted media coverage, over both the lack of transparency and –

European Commission formalises commitment to public travel expensesHelen Darbishire2018-11-13T10:03:05+01:00

14 Sep 2017

EU Commissioners’ travel expenses to be published proactively every two months

Helen Darbishire2018-11-13T10:03:18+01:00

Madrid, 14 September 2017 - Access Info today cautiously welcomed draft changes to the Code of Conduct for EU Commissioners announced yesterday by the EU, which will require the proactive publication of travel expenses every two months. The pro-transparency organisation, which, with the support of 120 citizens from across Europe, has been campaigning for access to the Commissioners’ travel expenses, noted that the draft text of the Code contains nothing on the precise data to be made public. Access Info has called for more specificities. “The devil is in the detail. A truly transparent system will provide citizens with enough

EU Commissioners’ travel expenses to be published proactively every two monthsHelen Darbishire2018-11-13T10:03:18+01:00

20 Jun 2017

Requesters appeal to EU Ombudsman for access to Commissioners’ expenses

Helen Darbishire2018-11-13T10:03:19+01:00

Madrid, 20 June 2017 - Access Info Europe and 53 requesters from across Europe appealed to the European Ombudsman about the European Commissions’ failure to register, process, and respond to requests for the 2016 travel expenses of EU Commissioners submitted five months ago, in January 2017. The joint complaint highlights the Commission’s four major violations of the EU transparency rules: (1) the failure to even register 152 of the requests; (2) the failure to process 188 of the requests; (3) failing to respond to 51 appeals; (4) for outright refusals to process requests for President Juncker, the Vice President Timmermans,

Requesters appeal to EU Ombudsman for access to Commissioners’ expensesHelen Darbishire2018-11-13T10:03:19+01:00

27 Feb 2017

Commissioners’ Expenses Campaign Update: Requesters Left in the Dark

Helen Darbishire2018-11-13T10:03:42+01:00

Madrid, 27 February 2017 – A month after 120 people from around Europe submitted a total of 189 requests for data on the travel expenses of European Commissioners for the year 2016, the requests have not even been registered by the Commission, in flagrant breach of its legal obligation to do so, and to respond within 15 working days. In an email exchange with Access Info’s director, Helen Darbishire, the Head of the Transparency Unit at the Secretariat General, Martin Kröger, has stated in writing that “Commission does not intend to send individual communications … to the applicants” and that

Commissioners’ Expenses Campaign Update: Requesters Left in the DarkHelen Darbishire2018-11-13T10:03:42+01:00

31 Jan 2017

Access Info calls on Commission to publish travel expenses data proactively

Helen Darbishire2018-11-13T10:03:43+01:00

Madrid, 31 January 2017 – Following a massive public response to Access Info’s campaign to crowd source requests for Commissioners’ expenses, the organisation has written to Vice President Frans Timmermans calling for the data to be proactively published. In under two days on Thursday 26 and Friday 27 January, a total of 119 people from across Europe submitted a total of 168 requests for access to the 2016 travel expenses claims of the 28 European Commissioners. “The rapid response to this campaign demonstrates the huge public interest in getting this information into the public domain,” stated Andreas Pavlou, Access Info’s

Access Info calls on Commission to publish travel expenses data proactivelyHelen Darbishire2018-11-13T10:03:43+01:00

26 Jan 2017

Request campaign launched for access to EU Commissioners’ travel expenses

Helen Darbishire2018-11-13T10:03:43+01:00

Madrid, 26 January 2017 - Access Info Europe today launched a public campaign to crowd source access to EU documents requests to obtain full information on the spending by EU Commissioners on travel costs. CLICK HERE TO PARTICIPATE IN THE CAMPAIGN! The campaign follows the discovery from a request by Access Info team member Alba Gutiérrez that Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker spent €63,126 on an air taxi to Turkey for the G20 summit. At same time, the Commission’s contracts with private air companies that provide such services was denied to another Access Info campaigner, Andreas Pavlou. After

Request campaign launched for access to EU Commissioners’ travel expensesHelen Darbishire2018-11-13T10:03:43+01:00