Brussels, 07/07/2009 (Agence Europe) - European Ombudsman Nikiforos Diamandouros says in a press release that he has called on the European Commission to release documents concerning the construction of an industrial port in Granadilla, Tenerife.
The European Environmental Bureau (EEB), a federation of environmental citizens' organisations, lodged a complaint with the Ombudsman after its request for access to the documents was rejected by the Commission. According to the Commission, the Spanish authorities objected to the disclosure of those documents which originated from them. The other documents in question were internal Commission documents related to its approval of the Granadilla project. The Commission argued that disclosing them would seriously undermine its decision-making process.
The Ombudsman found no evidence that disclosure of most of the internal documents would undermine the Commission's decision-making process. On the contrary, their disclosure would, in his view, help improve the Commission's internal deliberations. However, the Ombudsman did agree with the Commission that one of the documents at issue should not be disclosed. He asked the Commission to submit a detailed opinion by 31 October 2009.
The Ombudsman's full draft recommendation is available at: http: //http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/ cases/draftrecommendation.faces/en/4140/html.bookmark (O.J./transl.rt)