Brussels, 10/01/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 10 January, the European Ombudsman, Nikiforos Diamandouros, sharply criticised the European Commission's refusal to give access to documents concerning its view of the UK opt-out from the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights
ECAS (European Citizen Action Service), a Brussels-based NGO, lodged a complaint with the Ombudsman about the Commission's refusal to give access to five documents, drafted by its services and relating to the UK opt-out from the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. The opt-out was a major issue in the intergovernmental negotiations leading to the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty and the documents were prepared by the Commission. The Commission explained its refusal by referring to the need to protect both the legal advice it receives, as well as its internal decision-making process. After inspecting the documents in question, the Ombudsman concluded that the Commission's arguments for non-disclosure were not convincing. Despite the Ombudsman's recommendation that it make the documents in question public, the Commission only gave partial access. As access to documents is itself one of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Charter, and as the Commission failed substantively to engage with certain of his arguments, the Ombudsman concluded that such refusal constituted “a most serious instance of maladministration”. (LC/transl.fl)