Transparency and Access to Documents in the EU: Ten Years on from the Adoption of Regulation 1049/2001

Transparency is a prerequisite of good governance: it empowers citizens. It allows them to scrutinise and evaluate the activities of the public authorities and to call them to account. It also renders more effective the use of other public and political rights, particularly the freedom of speech and the right to information. At EU level, transparency is indispensable for increasing citizens’ understanding of EU decision-making and for enhancing their confidence in EU institutions. Public access to EU institutions’ documents strengthens their democratic credentials and helps to close the gap between them and the citizens.

The central instrument in the EU to that purpose is Regulation 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council, setting out the modalities for a right of access to EU documents and regulating transparency of disclosure procedures. This contribution discusses the thorny process of reforming this instrument and the current state of play.

[Article forms part of 30th Anniversary Special Issue of EIPASCOPE]

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: Access to documents http://www.europeansources.info/record/access-to-documents/

EIPASCOPE: Archive http://www.eipa.eu/en/eipascope/archive/

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