Strasbourg, 07/07/2003 (Agence Europe) - The European Ombudsman, Nikiforos Diamandouros, has asked the President of the European Convention, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, to make agendas and minutes of Praesidium meetings available to the public once the Convention has finished its work. The Ombudsman's intervention comes after a complaint by the director of the European Citizen Action Service (ECAS), whose request for access to documents was turned down.
Mr Diamandouros shares the Convention President's point of view that revealing agendas and minutes before the Convention's work is over "would seriously undermine the decision-making process". However, the Ombudsman feels "that it seems hard to support the view that the Convention's decision-making process would continue to be undermined once its work is finished". The Secretary General of the Convention has already informed the Ombudsman "that there is no reason that the documents in question could not be published at that stage". The Ombudsman has declared that "it is up to the Convention to take the necessary measures as soon as possible to ensure public access to documents by virtue of the principle of correct administration".