The European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties (LIBE) advocates a citizen-centred policy on access to the documents of the EU institutions, in a draft own-initiative report adopted on Tuesday 27 January.
Noting shortcomings, some of them “systemic”, in compliance with the Regulation (1049/2001), which provides a framework for such access, MEPs set out a number of recommendations: - ensuring fair procedures for requesting access to documents, where the EU institutions explain their decision for any refusal and where applicants have an effective remedy; - the Commission should review the compatibility of its internal rules with EU law and case law, and propose “a more ambitious framework to modernise the current rules”; - ensuring transparency in the use of artificial intelligence systems in EU decision-making, including information on algorithms, training data and impact assessments; - raising public awareness of the rights of access to documents of the EU institutions; - strengthening transparency for negotiations of international agreements and in EU Council decision-making, including ensuring timely access for the European Parliament and proactive publication of preparatory and trilogue documents.
“We must ensure that transparency is the rule and secrecy the exception, by ensuring timely access to documents, including those relating to legislation, trilogues and international agreements”, said Veronika Cifrová Ostrihoňová (Renew Europe, Slovak), the rapporteur on this file, in a press release.
See the compromise amendments put to the vote in the LIBE Committee: https://aeur.eu/f/kgl (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)