Brussels, 04/08/2000 (Agence Europe) - In a working document on public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents, the rapporteur for the parliamentary Committee on Freedoms and Citizen's Rights, Michael Cashman (British, Labour) feels that "the citizens right cannot be reduced to the acquisition of a piece of paper". And continued: "As is the case in several Member States and a seen in the last thirty years of policy experience in the United States for access to documents, the right to access to documents cannot be disassociated from the right to information on the institutions activities". This means that one of the first duties of the Community institutions is to present, in a clear and neutral manner, their activities, their working methods, internal responsibility and the procedures to follow to take decisions. Mr. Cashman reminds that the Community institutions spend more than EUR 100 million per year for this information activity that remains despite everything under performing.
Concerning more specifically access to documents, Mr Cashman felt that the main exceptions should cover: - respect for private life (Article 286 of the EC Treaty); - respect for professional secrecy (Article 287 of the EC Treaty); - respect for the internal and external security of the EU and its Member States; - respect for the legal or quasi legal procedures, in accordance with the rules of the competent Court or Commission procedures (case related to competition) or to the interinstitutional rules (for example in the case of a parliamentary investigative committee). The access to documents must be non-discriminatory and free or at a reduced cost if its divulging is in the public's interest and does not represent a trade interest for the requestor, as is the case for documents published in the Official Journal. Electronic versions of the Official Journal and the internal register of each institution should be accessible in "reading rooms" throughout the EU.
This document included in the context of the preparation of the first reading in the European Parliament of the European Commission draft regulation concerning access to documents from the three institutions in accordance with Article 225 of the EC treaty (see EUROPE of 28 January, p.11). This regulation that is submitted to the codecision procedure, must imperatively be adopted before 1 May 2001, as foreseen by the Treaty. A public hearing should be organised at the EP, between mid-September and mid-October, with non-governmental organisations and academics, the Parliament's plenary should vote in mid-November.