<nettime> New transparency in the EU - far from it!

["Ben Hayes" <ben@statewatch.pipal.net>]

This is in response to Mikael Pawlo's posting "New transparency in the
EU".

It is quite correct that the issue of EU institutions releasing their
documents onto the internet is part of a new code on public access to EU
documents to be approved in the EP plenary on 3rd of May.  However, this
already happens in practise anyway (and has been the subject of earlier EU
decisions). Council of the European Union documents have been put on a
public register for quite some time (see
<<http://register.consilium.eu.int/>) and the Commission and EP also
"publish" documents on their sites, although finding the information you
want is not easy.

What is worrying about Mikael Pawlo's post is that it fully endorses the
Brussels spin on the new code. This is very dangerous, because rather than
having a positive effect on transparency, the new code (which was all but
formally agreed in secret "trilogue"  meetings between the Council,
Commission and Parliament)  seriously undermines existing rights of public
access to documents.

In fact, the new code is a stitch-up between the Brussels institutions,
who care more about their own interests in the decision-making process
(the so-called "space to think"), than the interests of EU citizens'
public access to information on policy- making and implementation.

The new code is also a blatant breach of the commitment in Article 255 of
the Amsterdam Treaty to "enshrine" the citizen's right of access to EU
documents.

Many groups and individuals have opposed the new code, and have signed a
"call for an open Europe". These include: Statewatch, the European
Federation of Journalists, the European Environmental Bureau, the European
Citizen's Advisory Service, NGO's, leading academics and lawyers, and
citizens.

For extensive analysis and background on the new code and the call for an
open Europe see: <<http://www.statewatch.org>






<nofill>

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