Improve transparency of public administration, and access to document regulation.

EU Consultation

• Review of the rules on access to documents

The Commission has launched a consultation on the review of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents. The Green Paper is the starting point for this consultation, which will allow any interested person, individual citizen, non governmental organisation, association, economic operator, public authority or any other organisation to have a say on this issue. This consultation opens on 18 Avril and closes on 15 July 2007.

Goals

compile good ideas how to improve 1049/2001 e.g.

• an open content policy
• a policy for EU software code
• no unnecessary data request and privacy policy when asking for documents
  • (e.g. job)
• access via open standards
• ISO 26300 compliance
• single system of inter-institutional coding: unification of document descriptions and improved accessibility
• less paper consuming document headers
• develop a unique EU typeset for documents.
• no blackening of national parliament reservations

• colour-blind, see also MEP question

• comprehensive register of documents

draft a FFII contribution to the consultation

• alert all interested parties to participate

• FFII position paper (pdf, German, dated: July 2007)

longterm

• compile a set of demands
• campaign site for transparency and information freedom

Ressources

• Directive 1049/2001

• EU greenpaper

• Implementation rules Council

• Implementing rules EEA

• Implementing Rules EAR

Science

• Steve Peers: 1049/2001 in pratice (ppt)

MEPs

• Heaton-Harris: Transparency in awarding of contracts

• Kauppi: Public access to EU documents via Internet search engines

• Lundgren: Access to Commission documents (romania))

• Alyn Smith: famr subsidies

• Erik Meijer: Obstacles to open source software and the far-reaching dependence of government office equipment on a limited number of software producers and their expensive licences

• Cappatto Access to communication for people with disabilities

• Coelho: language discrimination

• Presedo: Disabled access to public websites and their content

• Elly de Groen-Kouwenhoven: International aid

• Ludford: Transparency and accountability of international aid provided by the EU

NGO

• Transparency International Poland article

• Staffan Dahllöf, International federation of Journalists 2002

• EDRIGram

• Plain English: Clarifying EC regulations

• Statewatch EU Freedom of Information

• British Chamber of Commerce (doc) - 9-9-2003

Regulatory bodies

http://erg.eu.int/links/index_en.htm

Ressources

• Open standards, [http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P6-TA-2007-0212+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN Gierek report)

50. Recalls the definition of open standards adopted by the Commission pursuant to which (i) the standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an open decision-making procedure available to all interested parties; (ii) the standard has been published and the standard specification document is available either freely or at a nominal charge; (iii) the intellectual property − i.e. patents possibly present − of (parts of) the standard is made irrevocably available on a royalty-free basis;

• European Commission - Public Sector Information barriers

• EU-Directive on the re-use of public sector information

• MEPSIR

* ETI consultation results, Commission Staff Working Document – Results of the Commission Consultation on the Green Paper 'European Transparency Initiative' (COM(2006) 194