Strasbourg, 13/12/2001 (Agence Europe) - In order to meet MEPs' concerns, Annemie Neyts (for the Council) and Michel Barnier (for the European Commission) has gives details of the implementation of the regulation on public access to documents and the outstanding issues in this connection.
Ms Neyts explained that the Council had respected the 3 December deadline for the implementation of the new regulation on access to documents, noting that during the tortuous discussions over how the interinstitutional committee would function (for examining best practices and settling disputes) that the Council had welcomed and Loyola de Palacio's suggestion (made at the informal three-way meeting on 28 November) that the committee be constituted at the level of the General Secretaries "through a political delegation". She explained that the Council, unlike the Parliament, did not want the Presidents of the institutions to systematically intervene in the event of an appeal. On the issue of sensitive documents, Ms Neyts signalled that the Council was prepared to end the negotiations with the EP on an interinstitutional agreement in European Foreign and Defence Policy (EFDP) which might be followed by other agreements, particularly in justice and home affairs. Against this backdrop, she said it would be useful if the EP re-assessed its position over its proceedings for annulment concerning the Council's security regulation and if it adopted measures for protecting classified documents in line with its own recently amended Rules of Procedure in order to give guarantees concerning the confidential nature of sensitive documents at the EP. In terms of measures for informing the public of the rights they hold under the new regulation, the three institutions involved are in the process of examining the various measures to be taken to draw up, for example, a joint handbook for citizens, she added.
Michel Barnier reassured MEPs about the two day postponement of the implementation of the regulation by the Commission, saying that the postponement would not have any impact as far as citizens are concerned because the Commission has been applying the regulation since 3 December and that its services had already started processing access requests based on the new rules. He listed the remaining tasks - amending the 1983 regulation on opening the archives to the public (the Commission will shortly be unveiling a proposal in this connection); and finding a way of subjecting agencies to the new rules. He also explained that the Commission had written a guide for citizens about their rights under the regulation (which will initially be available on the Commission's internet site, but it is later planned that the three institutions will draw up a common manual, he pointed out). Mr Barnier made it understood that the Commission did not feel bound by the way Parliament had implemented the new regulation, noting that the Commission intended to continue respecting the principle whereby every institution would amend its procedures (on an autonomous basis) in order to apply the regulation.