EN Official Journal of the European Union C 289/12

Rules on historical archives

(Adopted by the Bank's Management Committee on 7 October 2005)

(2005/C 289/07)

Whereas the European Investment Bank

is a financial institution owned by the Member States of the European Union;

has the task, under Article 267 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, to contribute, by having recourse to the capital market and utilising its own resources, to the balanced and steady development of the common market in the interest of the Community. For this purpose, the Bank shall, operating on a non-profit-making basis, grant loans and give guarantees, which facilitate the financing of investment projects in all sectors of the economy;

is committed to an active information policy and will continue to strengthen its efforts to provide the public with general information about its activities, policies and practices;

recognises that under the requirements of good administration applicable to Community institutions and bodies, including the Bank, documents should be publicly available to the maximum extent possible, and any denial of access to documents should be justified by reference to rules laid down in advance;

Whereas

in 1997, then in 2002, the Bank has published rules on public access to its documents, currently under review;

the Bank has adopted the following rules on historical archives:

Article 1

Scope

The Bank will open its Historical Archives collection to the public on the terms provided for by this Policy after the expiry of a period of 30 years starting from the date of the creation of the document.

For the purpose of these rules, ‘Archives’ means all documents of whatever type and in whatever medium which have originated in or been received by the Bank or by its staff in the performance of their duties which relate to the activities of the Bank.

‘The Historical Archives’ collection of EIB consist of that part of the EIB archives which has been selected for permanent preservation in the Historical Archives of the European Union in Florence.

Article 2

Procedure

Documents which are 30 years old and held within EIB collections will undergo an initial sorting process with the purpose of separating documents that are to be preserved from those which have no administrative or historical value.

Records within the Historical Archives collection are considered to be ‘EIB Confidential’ with restricted access until they have been de-classified.

In the case of documents involving third parties, these will be deemed still covered by the exceptions mentioned in EIB rules for access to documents. In this case, the exceptions may continue to apply to all or part of a document after the 30 year period if the relevant conditions for their application are satisfied.

Before deciding to make available to the public the documents mentioned in the preceding paragraph, the Bank will seek consent from the person or body concerned, of its intention to make the documents in question accessible to the public. In case of no reply or impossibility to obtain a reply from the third party, the Bank will use its sound judgment on authorizing disclosure of the concerned document.

Documents not declassified at the first examination shall be re-examined periodically and at least every five years.

Article 3

Access to the public

EIB will publish information annually on its historical archiving activities.

Public access to EIB Historical Archive Collection will be through the Historical Archives of the European Union in the European University Institute, Florence, Italy (http://www.iue.it/ECArchives/).