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[FYI] Council agrees to release documents to Statewatch after European Ombudsman intervenes
- To: debate@lists.fitug.de
- Subject: [FYI] Council agrees to release documents to Statewatch after European Ombudsman intervenes
- From: "Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>
- Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 13:35:43 +0200
<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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