Press Release: European citizens making more requests for Commission documents than ever before

Europe's citizens are showing an ever greater interest in Commission activities, over a growing number of policy areas. That's the conclusion of the latest annual report on public access to documents, which shows an 18% increase in the number of requests for documents in 2010.

In total, the Commission received 6,361 requests for access to documents in 2010. This compares to 5,401 in 2009 – and just 450 ten years ago. These requests concerned everything from a single document to entire files concerning various administrative procedures. The many requests for documents that were already publicly available are not included in these figures.

European Commission: Report ... on the application in 2010 of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents (COM (2011)492) http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/access_documents/docs/rapport_2010/comm_pdf_com_2011_0492_f_en_rapport.pdf

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