COMMISSION DECISION of 8 February 1994 on public access to Commission documents (94/90/ECSC, EC, Euratom)
THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,
Having regard to the Treaties establishing the European Communities, and in particular Article 162 of the Treaty establishing the European Community,
Whereas, in accordance with the Declaration on the right of access to information annexed to the Final Act of the Treaty on European Union and with the conclusions of the Birmingham and Edinburgh European Councils on bringing the Community closer to its citizens, a code of conduct setting out the principles governing access to Commission and Council documents should be agreed upon with the Council;
Whereas these principles are based on the Commission's papers on public access to the institutions' documents of 5 May 1993 and openness in the Community of 2 June 1993;
Whereas specific provisions need to be adopted whereby the Commission can give effect to the code,
HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:
Article 1
The code of conduct on public access to Commission documents set out in the Annex is adopted.
Article 2
In order to ensure that effect is given to the code referred to in Article 1, the following measures are adopted:
1. All applications for access to documents shall be made in writing to the relevant Commission department at its headquarters, Commission Offices in the Member States or Commission Delegations in non-member countries.
2. The relevant Director-General or Head of Department, the Director designated for the purpose in the Secretariat-General or an official acting on their behalf shall inform the applicant in writing, within one month, whether the application is granted or whether he intends to refuse access. In the latter case the applicant shall also be notified that he has one month in which to apply to the Secretary-General of the Commission for review of the intention to refuse access, failing which he shall be deemed to have withdrawn his initial application.
3. The President shall be empowered to decide on applications for review in agreement with the relevant Member of the Commission. He may delegate this authority to the Secretary-General.
4. Failure to reply to an application for access to a document within one month of application being made constitutes an intention to refuse access.
Failure to reply within one month of an application for review being made constitutes a refusal.
5. A fee of ECU 10, plus ECU 0.036 per sheet of paper, shall be charged for copies of printed documents exceeding 30 pages. Charges for information in other formats shall be set on a case-by-case basis but shall not exceed what is reasonable.
6. If an applicant wishes to consult a document on Commission premises, the relevant department shall try to make arrangements to accommodate him. Where the department is unable to provide appropriate facilities, the documents shall be consulted in either of the Commission's central libraries in Brussels and Luxembourg in any of the Commission's Offices in the Member States or in any of its Delegations in non-member countries.
Article 3
This Decision will take effect from 15 February 1994. It will be published in the Official Journal of the European Communities.
Done at Brussels, 8 February 1994.