On Tuesday 20 February, the European Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, announced a new accelerated procedure to deal with complaints concerning access to documents.
Under this new system, the Ombudsman undertakes to assess, within five working days, whether there is a need to open an investigation into a complaint concerning declined access to a document by an EU institution and to return a decision within 40 working days.
The new procedure scraps the stage that consists of requesting the opinion of the institution in question on the opening of an investigation - a stage that generally took place within three calendar months and, in her view, led to long delays.
Decisions on access to documents may be categorised by priority, as the institution will generally have already explained the reasons for its decision when the Ombudsman receives the complaint, she explained.
The new system, which has been trialled since 1 September 2017, is already up and running. For the 19 accelerated complaints dealt with during this period, all decisions were returned within two months, she said.
“I will also continue to push for the adoption of a proactive approach to the timely publication of information in the public interest”, O'Reilly added, referring to her recommendations to the Council of the EU last week to improve the transparency of its legislative process (see EUROPE 11960). (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)