Luxembourg, 22/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - The EU's Court of First Instance (CFI) has annulled the Council decision refusing a university lecturer and researcher, Aldo Kuijer, access to reports of the European Centre for Information, Reflection and Exchange on Asylum (CIREA). Drawn up between 1994 and 1998, these reports were on the situation of asylum-seekers having been sent back to Albania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Angola, Zaire, Nigeria, China, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
The Fourth Chamber of the CFI, over which judge Paolo Mengozzi presided, notes that these documents make an analysis of the political situation and the protection of human rights in each of these countries. They also contain more critical information on the protection of human rights and the possibilities for internal migration to escape persecution. The Council could not, however, refuse disclosure of this information, as some of the information had already been made public. Regarding Zaire and Sri Lanka, the Council had already criticised these countries to such an extent that CIREA's criticisms could not harm relations between them and the Union. The Council should provide access to these documents, it concludes.
The CFI also condemns the Council for not having provided the list of people in CIREA dealing with issues of asylum and who could be contacted, in the sense that this list is accessible to the public in certain Member states.
The Council had based its refusal on its code of conduct relating to public access to its documents (and those of the Commission). This code enables it to invoke the protection of the interest of the public, an individual or the Community's financial interests. For the Council, access to certain reports may harm relations between the EU and the countries concerned, and CIREA staff whose names would be published could be the subject of threats.
Worth noting that access to CIREA documents has been a lengthy process for Aldo Kuijer, who has already lodged - and won - other cases against the Council in 2000.