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21 Sep 2017

Spanish High Court orders disclosure of documents about OGP citing European Court of Human Rights jurisprudence

2018-11-13T10:03:07+01:00

[UPDATE - 2 March 2018 - The documents disclosed can be found here.] Madrid, 21 September 2017 – Spain’s High Court has ruled that Access Info Europe should have access to Spanish Government documents related to participation in the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in an important ruling where the Court for the first time makes reference to the right of access to information in international treaties. In a final decision, which is not open to appeal, the High Court rejected the Spanish Government’s attempt to classify progress reports on the OGP Action Plan as internal documents of an “auxiliary” nature.

Spanish High Court orders disclosure of documents about OGP citing European Court of Human Rights jurisprudence2018-11-13T10:03:07+01:00
13 Sep 2017

Access Info urges OECD to adopt strong and clear definition of Open Government

2018-11-13T10:03:18+01:00

Madrid, 13 September 2017 – Access Info Europe has urged the Organisation for Cooperation and Economic Development (OECD) to adopt a definition of an “Open Government” as one characterised by transparency, participation, responsiveness, and accountability, in line with increasingly established standards set by bodies such as the Open Government Partnership. Responding to the OECD’s public consultation on Open Government, Access Info raised concerns that the draft Recommendation confused three things: - the tools needed to achieve open government (such as use of new technologies to open up data) - the characteristics of an open government (transparency, participation and accountability) -

Access Info urges OECD to adopt strong and clear definition of Open Government2018-11-13T10:03:18+01:00
20 Jul 2017

Promoting Paris in Zagreb

2021-06-03T17:47:39+02:00

[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

Promoting Paris in Zagreb2021-06-03T17:47:39+02:00
7 Jun 2017

Spanish Government takes open government secrecy battle to High Court

2018-11-13T10:03:20+01:00

Madrid, 7 June 2017 – In baffling reluctance to be transparent about its own open government policies, the Spanish Government has appealed to the High Court against last month’s lower court ruling that it should provide Access Info Europe with progress reports on commitments under the Open Government Partnership (OGP). “It’s amazing that the Government is fighting so hard to keep secret information about what it’s doing to advance open government,” stated Helen Darbishire, Executive Director of Access Info Europe. The documents on what each Ministry is doing under the OGP Action Plan were first requested by Access Info Europe

Spanish Government takes open government secrecy battle to High Court2018-11-13T10:03:20+01:00
17 Feb 2017

OGP in Spain: More political will on participation, but legal battles for information are still underway!

2018-11-13T10:03:42+01:00

[Article first published by the Open Government Partnership Blog] Madrid, 17 February 2017 - February has been a month in which numerous high level political figures in Spain have been found guilty and sent to jail on corruption charges, including King Felipe VI’s own brother-in-law sentenced to six years in prison (more info in English here), things are also moving forward in a positive way when it comes to developing open government, with a new political team working on the next OGP Action Plan and Madrid City Hall holding an innovative, large-scale, public consultation as part of its first OGP

OGP in Spain: More political will on participation, but legal battles for information are still underway!2018-11-13T10:03:42+01:00
24 Nov 2016

Civil society calls on Spanish Government to be open about the Open Government Partnership – again!

2018-11-13T10:03:58+01:00

Madrid, 24 November 2016 – A letter from seventeen (17) Spanish civil society organisations sent today to the Spanish government calls for information about progress on the third Open Government Partnership Action Plan, as well as urging the Spanish authorities to send ministerial level representatives to the OGP summit, to be held in Paris on 7-9 December 2016. The letter from members of the Coalicíon Pro Acceso[1], also signed by five (5) individual transparency experts, notes that Paris is a high level summit, and at least 32 countries, including France, Germany and the UK, will be sending heads of state

Civil society calls on Spanish Government to be open about the Open Government Partnership – again!2018-11-13T10:03:58+01:00
7 Oct 2016

Global Civil Society Critiques Lack of Transparency in Spain

2018-11-13T10:03:59+01:00

Madrid, 7 October 2016 – Access Info Europe, Civio, and a total of 22 civil society organisations[1] meeting in Madrid at the International Open Data Conference, have sent a letter to the Spanish government expressing serious concerns about levels of transparency in Spain. Welcoming the hosting of the IODC by the Spanish government and some recent advances, the organisations noted that there is a critical need to improve open data and open government. “We are in a country where the government, surreal as it sounds, is litigating against the Transparency Council to resist publishing documents related to the Open Government

Global Civil Society Critiques Lack of Transparency in Spain2018-11-13T10:03:59+01:00
3 May 2016

Civil society urges OGP Steering Committee to undertake strong reforms and rally its core values

2018-11-13T10:04:11+01:00

Madrid, 3 May 2016 - The Open Government Partnership is in need of substantial reforms in order for it to become a real actor of change for greater transparency, participation and accountability worldwide, Access Info Europe and Alianza Regional have stated in an open letter sent to the organisation’s Steering Committee. The letter, supported by 64 civil society organisations, addresses five areas of improvement aiming to increase the OGP’s credibility and strengthen its core values: » Establishing clear and rigorous criteria for dealing with human rights violations by participating countries; » Ensuring real participation and co-creation of OGP Action Plans;

Civil society urges OGP Steering Committee to undertake strong reforms and rally its core values2018-11-13T10:04:11+01:00
28 Sep 2015

Time to get serious on Transparency!

2021-06-04T12:33:04+02:00

Madrid, 28 September 2015, By Helen Darbishire, Executive Director, Access Info Europe I am sitting in the Access Info Europe office in Madrid and staring in dismay at a document from the European Commission which seems to have more black lines covering the information it contains than anything useful. Dismayed and also amazed that the reason for not giving out information about a possibly problematic public procurement process in Serbia – a waste sludge processing plant to be funded with European taxpayer’s money – is apparently the personal privacy of those responsible for the decision. It’s 28 September 2015, the

Time to get serious on Transparency!2021-06-04T12:33:04+02:00
10 Apr 2015

Design of WJP Open Gov Index Skews Results

2018-11-13T09:46:34+01:00

Is this really a true picture of Open Government Worldwide? With evaluations such as "incredible", "rather amazing figure", and "missed opportunity", Dr Ben Worthy of LSE and Helen Darbishire of Access Info analyse the World Justice Project's Index 2015 and raise a series of important questions, including how accurate is the finding that 63 million people around the world asked for government information last year? Do 88% of Belarusians really get full responses to requests from government? Are 85% of Austrians aware of their (almost non-existent) FOIA law? Do 7% of Finns really pay bribes to get official information, the

Design of WJP Open Gov Index Skews Results2018-11-13T09:46:34+01:00
Original content developed by Access Info Europe and is made public under a Creative Commons Attribution, Share Alike licence.