Brussels, 03/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - By adopting the report by British Labour MEP Michael Cashman, the European Parliament backed by a very large majority (388 in favour, 87 against, 12 abstentions) the draft regulation on access to documents negotiated with the Council under Article 255 of the Treaty (see EUROPE of 26 April, p.7). The Council still has to formally approve the text at a forthcoming meeting, which could be the Consumer Council of 5 June in Luxembourg.
During the debate, Commissioner Michel Barnier considered that the establishment of clearer standards on public access to documents was essential to ensure the smooth running of Community institutions and to strengthen democratic legitimacy vis-à-vis the citizens. Recognising that the text was not perfect, Barnier presented it as "the point of balance between the characteristics of the institutions and the point of views of Member States". He said that the Commission, that deals the most with documents, was determined to implement this regulation "diligently and effectively". In a "spirit of compromise", the Commission accepted that infringement procedures should not appear among the exemptions to the new regulation, he recalled. Speaking on behalf of the Council, Swedish Minister Britta Lejon considered that the proposal provided clear improvements to the law in force. "In many cases the documents are available on the Internet. Documents will also be able to be forwarded on a written request. The time institutions have today to answer a request has been reduced to 15 working days at the latest". Should international law allow for broader access, like, for example, the right to information in matters pertaining to the environment in compliance with the Aarhus Convention, the new laws contained in the draft do not prohibit it. "A further improvement comes from the fact that the new rules apply to all documents of the institutions. Of course, the draft legal act contains rules of confidentiality guaranteeing documents that must be are covered by secrecy", said Ms. Lejon. The rules that citizens have so far had to content themselves with (regarded as having "great shortcomings") have a very low nominative status as they are based on the internal regulations of the institutions, she recalled. "The Council is for now the only institution to have drawn up a public register and the rules presuppose very lengthy procedures to have access to documents".
The rapporteur, Michael Cashman recognised that negotiations had at times been very hard, that the compromise was far from what the EP would have liked, but that this compromise had been achieved within the imparted deadline. "The "comprehensive and practical" framework rests on the principle of freedom of information, he stressed, stipulating that the institutions had managed to guarantee both access to documents and a certain level of security and confidentiality. "Only those documents that appear on a list drawn up in a very precise manner will be excluded from free access and the reasons for this rejection will have to be mentioned", he stated. The Finnish President of the Green Group, Heidi Hautala recalled that the debate on transparency did not come from nothing and that improvements had been made in 1993 already. She stressed the role played by NGOs whose activities enabled the Court of Justice to perfect its case law. She did, however, deplore the fact that the Council will retain the right to classify a whole series of documents. Speaking on behalf of the EPP Group, Sweden's Charlotte Cederschiold regarded the compromise as positive, in the sense that it limits exceptions to questions of security and defence. The confidentiality of a document is established if the interests of the citizens can be harmed.. Margrietus van den Berg (Dutch, PES) pointed to the pressure applied by certain Member states to prevent to the maximum the limit to the "long list of exceptions". He regretted that "we have no details on NATO documents" which are subjected to "special authorization". Jan Wiebenga (Dutch, ELDR) said that although the compromise contained weaknesses, "it represents a clear improvement in relation to the Commission's initial proposal", especially in the sense that a new adaptation of the regulation is scheduled for 2004.. "Confidentiality is now the exception", he summarized. Kathalijne Buitenweg (Dutch, Green/EFA) regretted that special treatment was granted to too many sensitive documents, and that the notion of sensitive or confidential documents is all the more imprecise that it would be up to a small group of officials to decide. Denmark's Pernille Frahm, GUE/NGL Group, considered that the question of internal documents was not sufficiently defined. For Ole Krarup (Danish, EDD) this text is a move backwards in relation to what is practiced in Scandinavian countries..