Type: Acts of the European Union: Report on public access to the documents of the EU

Authority: European Authorities - European Union: European Commission

Date: 06/30/2010

Subject: In the report regarding public access to the documents of the EU institutions that covers 2009, the European Commission underlined that the number of initial applications remained stable; whereas the number of confirmatory applications fell slightly. The applications concerned principally the following area of interest: the environment, transport and energy, cooperation in judicial matters, the internal market and competition. The breakdown of applications by socioprofessional profile confirmed the significance of applications from the academic world. The majory of applications cames from persons or bodies established in Belgium or from the most highly-populated Member States (i.e. Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands). The main grounds for confirming refusal of access were: protection of the purpose of investigations, protection of commercial interests, protecting the Commission's decision-making process. In the legislative field, more and more documents are made available to the public directly, without waiting for access applications.

Classification: Citizens’ rights - Art. 42 Right to access documents of EU institutions

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