Debate: Transparency and administrative standards - the treatment of public access requests based on Regulation  No /
Date: THURSDAY, 10 MARCH 2022
Speaker: Věra Jourová
Language: EN

The transparency obligation embraces several areas. One is public access to documents, but there is also legislative transparency and transparency of relations of the Commissioners, members of Cabinets and Directors General with interest representatives. The interinstitutional agreement on a mandatory transparency register ensures greater transparency of the relations of institutions with interest representatives. The Commission proactively publishes a wide variety of legal, policy, administrative and other documents on different websites and registers. Many are available on the register of Commission documents, the register of delegated and implementing acts, and other corporate registers on EUR—Lex. Last year, the Commission released a new version of the register of Commission documents featuring additional search functionalities, an improved user interface and the proactive publication of new document types. In the second phase of this project, the Commission will integrate the register of Commission documents with other Commission registers, thus gradually transforming it into a single entry point for Commission documents. The regulation concerning public access to documents lays down the general principles and limits to the right to public access to documents, and provides the means of redress available against the final decision of the institution, a complaint to the European Ombudsman or an action before the Court. I would like to draw your attention to the two legislative proposals for recast of this regulation tabled by the Commission and which have been pending for a long period. The Commission does not see, for the moment, a willingness on the part of the co-legislators to engage in a revision process on the basis of these proposals, and we remain fully ready to support further legislative and political discussions. If there is no prospect for any further progress on these files, the Commission is also ready to propose their withdrawal again and come with a new, updated and holistic proposal adapted to the developing realities of the 21st century, also considering the case law and the Ombudsman’s recommendations. In the meantime, the Commission is regularly analysing its administrative practice. For example, currently we are working to develop a new portal and new IT tools. With this new portal and IT systems for submitting and handling requests for access to Commission documents – Electronic Access to European Commission Documents, that’s the name of the system – citizens will be able to submit their initial and confirmatory requests, see their ongoing and closed requests, receive replies electronically with no need for notification, search for documents disclosed to other applicants, manage their personal data, and so on. The system is expected to go live by mid—2022 – so, very soon. The statistical data for access to documents show a high level of transparency, as full or partial access is granted to a vast majority of the requested documents. The Commission receives a high number of requests for access to documents. Concretely, 8 001 initial and 309 confirmatory applications were received in 2020, more than for any other institution. Transparency is thus part of the daily business of all Commission departments. The statistics from 2020 show that requests for documents by citizens were fully or partially granted in 81% of the initial cases. Wider, or even full, access was further granted in more than 37% of the cases reviewed at the confirmatory stage. This proves that the Commission takes transparency very seriously. The preliminary data from 2021 that will be presented in the forthcoming Commission Annual Report on Public Access to Documents confirm this positive trend, as well as the high interest on the part of the general public to obtain access to documents held by the Commission in the areas related to the pandemic and the Recovery and Resilience programmes. This data shows the commitment of the Commission to the right of access to documents as part of its overall transparency policy, including in the unprecedented pandemic situation. With regard to the transparency of the purchase of the vaccines against COVID—19, the Commission proactively published the advance purchase agreements with pharmaceutical companies. We are also preparing a response to the European Ombudsman recommendation on the European Commission’s refusal to grant public access to the text messages exchanged between the Commission President and the CEO of a pharmaceutical company on the purchase of a COVID—19 vaccine. The Commission will provide a response by the deadline of 26 April 2022.