Brussels, 20/03/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Monday, the General Affairs Council adopted a decision aimed at facilitating access to certain documents through electronic means. The decision, to take effect on 1 May, provides for certain non-classified documents to be accessible to the public via the Council's Internet website. These documents are: - those not authored by the Council or a Member State, which have been made public by their author or with his agreement; - provisional agendas of meetings of the various formations of the Council; - any text adopted by the Council and intended to be published in the Official Journal. In so far as they are not classified, the agendas of the working groups and committees of the Council as well as the information notes and reports that do not reflect the individual positions of Member States should also be made accessible after being put into circulation. Regarding legislative documents, the public should have access to: - cover notes and copies of letters addressed to the Council by other EU bodies and institutions or by a Member State; - notes submitted to Coreper and/or to the Council for approval (A items) as well the draft legislative acts to which they refer; - decisions adopted by the Council and certain preparatory documents in the context of codecision procedure. This decision in no way prejudges the framework regulation that is to be adopted in codecision with the European Parliament in application of Article 255 of the Treaty. Each Member State has the right to call on the Council General Secretariat not to make a document public if it comes from this Member State.
The Council also adopted a decision providing for the basic principles and minimum security standards to be respected by the Council, its General Secretariat, the Member States and the EU's decentralised agencies, in order to guarantee a common level of security for all information classified "confidential EU", a majority of which will concern common security and defence policy (CESDP). This decision prejudges neither the regulation to be adopted under Article 255 of the Treaty nor the customary practices of Member States in the context of briefing national parliaments on activities of the Union. These measures concern above all the technical means making it possible to: - guarantee data protection; - detect persons likely to compromise the security of confidential information; - guarantee that the information is diffused according to the "need-to-know" principle.
During lunch, ministers held a brief exchange of views on the method to be followed concerning the framework regulation on access to documents which are the subject of codecision procedure with the European Parliament. Under Article 255 of the Treaty, this regulation should be imperatively adopted by 1 May but the large number of delays, linked mostly to the absence of a transparency culture in the Member State but also within the Community administration, will no doubt not longer allow this deadline to be kept, despite the repeated expression of good faith by institutions with regards transparency. Within the Council, the Swedish Presidency and the countries traditionally open to transparency, like Finland, continue to come up against the reticence of Germany, Spain and France. Some voices have also been raised in the Parliament against the attitude of the Commission, which seems to prefer a minimalist regulation rather than seek to bring the points of view of two co-legislators closer. EUROPE will come back to this tomorrow.