19 Public access to EU documents
| (26819)
12040/05
COM(05) 348
+ ADD 1
| Commission Report on the application of Regulation 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents
Commission staff working paper
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| Legal base | None |
| Document originated | 29 July 2005
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| Deposited in Parliament | 12 September 2005
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| Department | Foreign and Commonwealth Office
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| Basis of consideration | EM of 29 September 2005
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| Previous Committee Report | None
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| To be discussed in Council | No date set
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| Committee's assessment | Legally and politically important
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| Committee's decision | Not cleared; further information requested
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Background
19.1 Article 17 of Regulation No. 1049/2001 regarding public access
to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents, applicable
since December 2001, requires each of the three institutions to
publish an annual report for the preceding year. The report must
cover cases in which the institution concerned did not grant access
to documents, the reasons for such refusals and recording the
number of sensitive documents not put on the register.
The document
19.2 The document is the report by the Commission for 2004. It
is the third such report presented by the Commission. The main
finding of the Report is that the trend of the last two years
of rising requests for documents has continued. Following enlargement
in 2004, the Commission register of internal documents was adapted
to cover the EU's twenty official languages.
19.3 The number of requests for information increased
substantially during 2004. The number of initial requests rose
from 1523 to 2600 (an increase of 70.72%) compared to a rise from
991 to 1523 (53.7%) for 2003. The number of confirmatory requests
rose from 143 to 162 (an increase of 13.29%) compared to a rise
from 93 to 143 (48.96%) for 2003.[63]
The breakdown by area of interest has remained more or less the
same as in previous years. Competition, customs, indirect taxation,
the internal market and the environment trigger most requests
for disclosure accounting for approximately 40% of the total.
The single most important categories of applicants remain interest
groups, NGOs and companies. More than a quarter of all requests
are made by persons of bodies established in Belgium, which reflects
the large number of multi-national companies, law firms and associations
with EU affairs offices in Brussels. The percentage of requests
from the new member states was relatively low at 4.31%.
19.4 The percentage of positive replies given by
the Commission in the initial requests stage was 68.19% in 2004
(slightly down from 69.31% in 2003). In 64.8% of cases the whole
document was disclosed, and in the remainder partial access was
granted. The Commission confirmed its initial decisions in 73.21%
of cases. The percentage of entirely positive replies after an
initial refusal was 9.09%; the percentage of decisions granting
partial access after an initial refusal was 17.7%. The main reason
for refusal of access at the initial stage was to protect the
purpose of inspections, investigations and audits (31.81%). The
second most common reason for refusal was the protection of the
Commission's decision-making process (25.44%). In 2004, 13 complaints
were made against the Commission for refusal to disclose documents.
In most cases the ombudsman concluded that there was no evidence
of maladministration or the cases settled to the satisfaction
of the complainant. The ombudsman made critical remarks in three
cases.
The Government's view
19.5 In his Explanatory Memorandum of 29 September
2005 the Minister for Europe (Mr Douglas Alexander) welcomes the
publication of the Commission's Report and outlines the government's
view as follows:
"The Government welcomes the Commission's
report as a means of monitoring the levels of openness within
EU processes and institutions. The government has always been
strongly in favour of greater openness, and worked hard during
the negotiation of the Regulation to achieve a more open system
coupled with adequate protection for documents that genuinely
need such protection. The Regulation achieves that balance."
The Minister adds that the regulation does not affect
the operation of the Freedom of Information Act, which came into
force in the UK on 1 January 2005.
Conclusion
19.6 We thank the Minister for his helpful summary
of the Commission's Report. We are, however, concerned to learn
that in over one quarter of all its refusals to release documents
the reason given by the Commission was the protection of its own
decision-making process. We ask the Minister whether the Government
agrees with our view that this figure is very high and that more
detailed information should be provided by the Commission both
in relation to the precise reasons for refusal and the categories
of cases concerned.
63 The distinction between initial and confirmatory
requests for access to documents is set out in Article 7 of Regulation
1049/2001. Within 15 working days from registration of an initial
application the relevant institution shall either grant access
to the document requested or, in writing, state the reasons for
the total or partial refusal to grant such access. In the event
of a total or partial refusal of the initial application the applicant
may, within 15 working days of receiving the institution's reply
to his initial request, make a confirmatory application asking
the institution to reconsider its position. Back
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