Brussels, 27/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - The number of requests to access documents kept out of the public domain by the Commission continued to rise in 2005. As in previous years, most requests, more than 40% in fact, came from companies, NGOs, lawyers or diverse interest groups, explains a report adopted by the European Commission on 24 September on the application of EU measures on public access to European institutions' documents in 2005.
The general image that emerges from the assessment of the requests processed by the Commission is that a large proportion of them concern the Commission's monitoring of respect of EU law. In a huge number of cases, access to the documents is requested in order to help back up an applicant's case when complaints are made about, for example, alleged infringement of EU law, or an administrative or legal appeal. The Commission comments that most of the requests concern a hefty mass of documents, whose analysis leads to a considerable administrative burden.
According to the report, the most frequently quoted reasons for refusing to grant requests were protection of the aims of the investigation, protecting businesses' commercial interests and protecting the Commission's decision-making process. The Commission comments that its own decision-making process is used more to protect decision-makers at an individual level than the legislative process as a whole.
The Commission explains that in the legislative domain there are more and more documents being made directly accessible to the public without requiring special authorisation. It notes that the Commission Directorate-Generals have developed websites on their policies, on which a considerable number of documents have been put into the public domain.
The Commission also notes that most of the complaints concluded by the Ombudsman in 2005 were settled to the satisfaction of the appellant. The number of complaints lodged with the Ombudsman over application of the access to EU institution documents (Regulation 1049/2001) remained stable in 2005 despite the rise in the number of requests for access.
The Commission's report points out that the Court of First Instance has confirmed its case law on two issues - the member states' right to oppose the publication of documents they have submitted to an EU institution; and the demand, in principle, for tangible and individual examination of all documents for which request has been made. In addition, the Court of First Instance clarified that Regulation 1049/2001 concerns public access to documents and that the any special reason the requester may have for wanting access to a document is not relevant when it comes to accessing the validity of grounds for refusal. The report can be found at: http: //eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/com/2007/com2007_0548en01.pdf (ol)