Europe: Nordic ministers stand up against roll-back of EU wob

BRUSSELS – DECEMBER 15^TH 2008 - Ministers of Finland and Sweden stand up against the roll-back of the EU access to documents regulation as drafted by the European Commission. During a seminar held by the Finish representation in Brussels on December 11^th.  “Europe needs more transparency, not less,” said Cecilia Malmström, Swedish minister of European Affairsm, former MEP and among the rapporteurs for the existing EU-wob, regulation 1049/01.

Also the Finish minister for European Affairs, Astrid Thors, was critical towards the Commission draft.

“We are worried about the effect that some of the Commission proposals would have on public access to EU documents,” said Astrid Thors in her opening speech.

“Our interpretation is that the Commission proposes, among other things, to exclude certain groups of documents, such as documents relating to the Commission’s own inspections, entirely outside the scope of the rules on public access. Needless to say, such documents cover a major part of the Commission’s duties. The justification for this is the need to reduce the workload of the Commission by releasing it from the duty to assess the documents one by one when considering their possible release. But on the contrary, we believe that considering documents one by one is a cornerstone of this legislation. What we may lose in the end with a little bit more work, we win by having a good and sound administration,” she said.

“In this context, I wish to underline the significant contribution that investigative journalists, advocates, NGOs and researchers – to name a few – make in requesting documents – one by one - and in making the information contained in them available for the public at large. They play a crucial role in any functioning democracy.”

One of the officials, who played a key role in introducing more openness and the new regulation in the Council of the European Union, Hans Brunmayr, even concluded, that a change of the regulation was unnecessary, such changes could endanger the current practice, Brunmayr said.

“Regulation 1049 functions well. Personally I do not see a justification for a recast from the perspective of the Council. Too much precision and perfection bear the risk of restriction. The Regulation has allowed smooth application of access rules and served as catalyst for related measures promoting openness and transparency. We should be careful and avoid to put the assets of the regulation in danger.”

Earlier this autumn the Grand Committee of the Finish Parliament spoke out against the draft of the Commission, according to a statement of October 17th 2008.

"The Grand Committee emphasizes, that if approved, the Commision's proposal would lead to a major reversal of the Union's transparency and the public's access to documents. The proposal is thus in contradiction to goals that have been repeatedly affirmed by the European Council.

The Grand Committee considers it worrying and reproachable that the Commission has advanced in support of its proposal justifications that must be considered untrue and misleading. Such conduct is liable to weaken the Commission's public credibility."

The representative of the Commission, Marc Maes, in his speech did not comment directly on the criticism but said, that the basic principles would be kept, and that access to the public at large should not be limited.

Additional reporting on EUobserver.com.