[Ninux-day] Fwd: EU access to documents regulation 1049/2001

[Mitar]

Hi!

Forwarding. Please spread the info. Try to influence your local MEPs in
EU parliament.


Mitar

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Dear Campaigners for a Transparent EU,
Next week we will be sending you a letter which you can forward to your
MEPs or amend as you wish in order to get them to vote against the
Commission’s retrogressive proposals on the future of EU access to
documents regulation 1049/2001.
This week we are sending you an update on the letter, the debate, and
the impacts of the campaign:

The letter
Our letter to MEPs on the Civil Liberties (LIBE) Committee was sent on
Friday 28 January. By that point, the letter had 187 signatures, of
which 131 were civil society organisations. The remaining 56 were
investigative journalists, academics, and access to information
campaigners. We are still collecting signatures for the letter. Our plan
is to re-send it to the MEPs just before the vote on this issue (date to
be confirmed) with the final tally of signatures. So far, the letter has
245 signatures (146 CSOs and 99 individuals).
Please pass this initiative on to your contacts, and tell them to add
their support by emailing us or by filling in the following form

The debate in the European Parliament
On 1st February, the LIBE committee (in charge of this dossier) only
briefly debated the future of the regulation due to time constraints.
Given that this issue is of such importance to the public, the MEPs
decided to debate it more thoroughly at a later date (to be confirmed).
We would still like to share a couple of quotes from this brief session
which illustrate the current situation:
Renate Sommer, of the European People's Party stated: “It's not the case
that the EPP is against transparency, on the contrary... but as regards
how much information we disclose in terms of documents, or how much can
be  disclosed without confusing the citizen; according to Mr. Cashman's
proposals the citizen will be drowned in information and will be unable
to pick out the important information.” [emphasis ours]
Cornelis de Jong, of the Confederal Group of the European United Left,
stated that “If the citizens are interested to get to know more about
what is happening in Brussels and Strasbourg, we should be happy about
this and encourage it.”
As soon as we know when the proper debate will be, we will let you know.
We will also be sending a note to the MEPs rebutting all the
transparency-reducing arguments that were put forward during this
mini-debate.

Reactions to the Campaign
The campaign has attracted some media attention from, for example, the
EU Observer and the Wall Street Journal. (See attached if you are not a
Premium WSJ Subscriber).
LIBE rapporteur Michael Cashman will be briefing the press on this issue
on Thursday 10 February and has released a press statement (attached).
In particular we support his efforts to:
Counter the Commission’s proposal that Member States should be allowed
to exercised veto power over access to documents authored and
transmitted by them to the EU institution Ensure that there is
transparency throughout the legislative process and that legal advice is
not exempted from transparency obligations Strike the right balance
between the public interest in information and
the need to protect personal privacy. Concretely, personal information
should be released if this is required by the public interest in that
information.
Ensure that access to EU documents is considered a right and not simply
a good administrative practice
MEP Heidi Hautala has demonstrated her support for the campaign and has
asked us to give her examples of problems we have encountered when
trying to access EU information so that she can use them to argue for
greater transparency. (Mrs. Hautala is in charge of writing this year’s
report on the functioning of the access to documents regulation - please
find the working document attached in two parts.)
Mrs. Hautala and Mr. Cashman have organised a hearing in Parliament to
which NGOs, the institutions, agencies and journalists will be invited
to discuss the issue and address the EPP’s arguments. They will then
organise a big press conference, which should take place in March/April.
We will keep you updated on this.

What you can do Given the tense situation between those that are in
favour of a strong guarantee of transparency, and those that are
reluctant, it is vital that we keep up the pressure for an open EU. And
here’s what you can do to help:
Forward the campaign to your contacts and get them to sign the letter.
Share with us your examples of failed or overly difficult access to EU
information requests.
Forward the letter we will be sending you next week to your country’s
MEPs. Provide comments on Heidi Hautala’s working document by the end of
February.
Lobby the MEPs from your country to vote against the Commission’s
proposal. We will provide you with our full support and may even
accompany you to the meeting.
Come to the press conference in March/April!

Thanks for your support!
The Access Info, ClientEarth and Greenpeace team
To contact us, email pam at access-info.org, or call +34 91 366 5344
For more information, see http://www.access-info.org/en/european-union
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