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[FYI] Council agrees to release documents to Statewatch after European Ombudsman intervenes



<http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt& 
doc=EO/01/16|0|RAPID&lg=EN>  

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Council agrees to release documents to Statewatch after European 
Ombudsman intervenes  


                                DN: EO/01/16     Date: 2001-09-20


                                     TXT: FR EN DE
                                     PDF: FR EN DE
                                     Word Processed: FR EN DE

                                EO/01/16 

                                Strasbourg, 23 July 2001 

Council agrees to release documents to Statewatch after European 
Ombudsman intervenes  

The Council has agreed to release documents to Statewatch, a UK-based 
group monitoring civil liberties in the European Union. This follows 
a draft recommendation of the European Ombudsman, Jacob Söderman, in 
March of this year. The documents concerned are the agendas of the 
"Senior Level Group" and the "EU-US Task Force". M. Söderman 
underlined the importance of safeguarding the widest possible access 
for European citizens to information and the need to respect rules on 
the right of access to documents.  

Statewatch has expressed satisfaction with the outcome.  

Details of the case  

The complainant lodged his complaint with the Ombudsman in July 2000 
after the Council refused him access to the agendas of the "Senior 
Level Group" and the "EU-US Task Force". The Council claimed that the 
documents were not "held by the Council". They were held by its 
General Secretariat, an institution "different" from the Council. 
Officials of its General Secretariat kept copies for the purpose of 
their work but these were not registered or filed systematically in 
the Council's archives. The documents therefore fell outside the 
scope of its public access rules, it claimed (Council Decision on 
public access to documents 93/731/EC).  

The Ombudsman rejected the Council's argument that its General 
Secretariat is a separate institution. No provision in the Treaty or 
in Community law would suggest such a thing. Therefore, documents 
held by the General Secretariat of the Council are documents "held by 
the Council" and its public access rules apply. The Ombudsman also 
insisted that the aim of the Code of Conduct on Public Access to 
documents is to allow for the largest possible access for citizens to 
information. This objective could not be met if the Council refused 
access to documents saying that they were held by its General 
Secretariat.  

The Ombudsman made a draft recommendation in March 2001 asking the 
Council to release the agendas before 30 June, 2001, unless one or 
more of the exceptions in its rules on public access to documents 
applies (contained in Article 4 of Council Decision 93/731/EC). The 
Council reconsidered its initial decision and has given the 
complainant access to the requested documents.  

The Decision can be found on the Internet at:  

http://www.euro-ombudsman.eu.int/decision/en/000916.htm  

For further information, please call Gerhard Grill, Principal Legal 
Officer, tel. +33 (0) 3 88 17 24 23.  

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