WRITTEN QUESTION E-3705/01

by Jonas Sjöstedt (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(17 January 2002)

Subject: Undertaking not to issue documents retrieved from the Circa database

According to various sources, including Dagens Nyheter of 24 February 2001, Swedish officials wishing to gain access to the Circa database and obtain a password must sign an undertaking not to pass documents retrieved from the database to anyone else.

As such material is necessary for monitoring the work of the Union, several Swedish officials, for instance in the Ministry of Agriculture and the Board of Agriculture, have signed such an assurance.

But Swedish officials cannot give any such undertaking, for, under Sweden's legislation on the disclosure of information, any documents received by members of working parties immediately become public documents held by government offices or by the authority concerned. Requests for the issue of such documents have to be considered under Swedish rules, irrespective of whether the Commission has marked them confidential or restricted. Anything else would constitute an infringement of Sweden's Law on Official Secrets and Law on the Freedom of the Press.

Does the Commission take the view that documents Swedish officials retrieve from Circa must be exempt from the provisions of Sweden's Law on Official Secrets and Law on the Freedom of the Press?

Answer given by Mr Prodi on behalf of the Commission

(20 March 2002)

The Commission would like to draw the Honourable Member's attention to the fact that CIRCA is not, strictly speaking, a database. It is an application which was initially developed as part of the IDA programme (exchange of data with Member States), allowing the exchange of electronic documents between a group of identified users.

Access to CIRCA document directories is protected by a password so that the documents stored are restricted to those for whom they are intended. Each department which uses CIRCA is responsible for distribution of the documents it contains and can therefore make access subject to specific conditions.

The Honourable Member's question mentions the need to sign an undertaking not to pass on the documents without authorisation. A clause of this kind is an example of a specific condition that is linked to the nature of the documents and is independent of the fact that they are distributed electronically.

It is therefore important to point out that the restriction applied to persons with access to the relevant CIRCA directories would also apply if the documents had been made available to them by other means.

Users of CIRCA, other than Commission officials, belong to bodies or authorities in the Member States and are given access because they represent the Member States in the institutions.

As regards closed user groups of the CIRCA network in the Agriculture DG, access is strictly personal and the confidential information on CIRCA is intended for personal use only and may not be divulged to others or disseminated without prior written authorisation from the Commission.

This reserve clause, which exists because of the nature of the documents, should not pose any specific problems of compatibility with national legislation in terms of confidentiality or access to information and documents.