WRITTEN QUESTION E-0610/02 by Cecilia Malmström (ELDR) to the Commission. Register of Commission documents.
Date: 2002-03-06
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European Commission, access to EU information, official document, provision of documents

18.7.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 172 E/219

(2002/C 172 E/234)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0610/02

by Cecilia Malmström (ELDR) to the Commission

(6 March 2002)

Subject: Register of Commission documents

Article 11 of Regulation No 1049/2001 (1) stipulates that each institution must provide public access to a
register of documents. It is also laid down that references to documents are to be recorded in the register
without delay. The register must be operational by 3 June 2002.

There is at present no central register of Commission documents. This was also confirmed by Secretary-
General O’Sullivan on the eurobserver.com website on 19 February 2002.

Article 8(1) of the Commission’s own decision of 5 December 2001 states that the coverage of the register
is to be extended gradually. Will the Commission therefore state whether a full register of Commission
documents, public or otherwise, will be accessible before 3 June 2002? If the register is to be extended
gradually, how does this square with Article 11(3) of the Regulation, which ought to mean that the register
is complete by June?

(1) OJ L 145, 31.5.2001, p. 43.

Answer given by Mr Prodi on behalf of the Commission

(23 April 2002)

The Commission wishes to reassure the Honourable Member that it will have, by 3 June 2002 at the latest,
a register of documents, which will be accessible to the public on the Internet. The register will primarily
cover legislative documents as defined in Article 12(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European
Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council
and Commission documents (1). Initially, it will contain references to the SEC, COM and C documents
submitted to the College from 1 January 2001 onwards. A help page will inform the public how the
document may be obtained. If the document has been published, there will be a link to the full text in the
Publications Office’s free EUR-Lex system (http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/index.html).

its registers. This gradual extension is not
The Commission will gradually extend the coverage of
incompatible with Article 11 of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, insofar as Article 11 does not specify what
content the registers of each institution must cover.

The Commission believes that the registers will be useful in helping citizens exercise their right of access.
The fact that a document does not appear in the registers, however, in no way precludes anyone from
requesting and being given access to the document.

The Commission would further remind the Honourable Member that it already has a correspondence
register containing all the mail addressed to its President and his replies (http://europa.eu.int/comm/
commissioners/prodi/regcp/registre.cfm?CL=en), as well as a register of inter-institutional procedures (the
PreLex database, http://europa.eu.int/prelex/apcnet.cfm) which follows the major stages of the decision-
making process between the Commission and the other institutions and gives direct access to the
electronic texts of the preparatory acts available.

(1) OJ L 145, 31.5.2001.