2022/2015(INI) Public access to documents - annual report for the years 2019-2021
Next event: Indicative plenary sitting date 2023/05/08
Lead committee dossier:
Next event: Indicative plenary sitting date 2023/05/08
Progress: Awaiting committee decision
Role | Committee | Rapporteur | Shadows |
---|---|---|---|
Lead | LIBE | INCIR Evin ( S&D) | HALICKI Andrzej ( EPP), IN 'T VELD Sophia ( Renew), STRIK Tineke ( Verts/ALE), KOFOD Peter ( ID), BRUDZIŃSKI Joachim Stanisław ( ECR), ERNST Cornelia ( GUE/NGL) |
Committee Opinion | AFCO | KUMPULA-NATRI Miapetra ( S&D) | Maite PAGAZAURTUNDÚA ( RE), Nathalie COLIN-OESTERLÉ ( PPE), Daniel FREUND ( Verts/ALE) |
Lead committee dossier:
Legal Basis:
RoP 122-p7
Legal Basis:
RoP 122-p7Events
2023/05/08
Indicative plenary sitting date
2023/01/12
EP - Committee draft report
Documents
2022/04/20
EP - INCIR Evin (S&D) appointed as rapporteur in LIBE
2022/02/17
EP - Committee referral announced in Parliament
2021/10/27
EP - KUMPULA-NATRI Miapetra (S&D) appointed as rapporteur in AFCO
Activities
- Dita CHARANZOVÁ
Plenary Speeches (0)
- Angel DZHAMBAZKI
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- Cornelia ERNST
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- Heidi HAUTALA
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- Balázs HIDVÉGHI
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- Sophia IN 'T VELD
Plenary Speeches (0)
- Miapetra KUMPULA-NATRI
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- Juan Fernando LÓPEZ AGUILAR
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- Dimitrios PAPADIMOULIS
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- Stanislav POLČÁK
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- Jiří POSPÍŠIL
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- Kathleen VAN BREMPT
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- Anders VISTISEN
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- Rainer WIELAND
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- Milan ZVER
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- Gunnar BECK
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- Andrzej HALICKI
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- Anne-Sophie PELLETIER
Plenary Speeches (0)
- Tineke STRIK
Plenary Speeches (0)
- Daniel FREUND
Plenary Speeches (0)
- Joachim Stanisław BRUDZIŃSKI
Plenary Speeches (0)
- Evin INCIR
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- Virginie JORON
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- Cristian TERHEŞ
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- Leszek MILLER
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- Annika BRUNA
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- Dorien ROOKMAKER
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- Cyrus ENGERER
Plenary Speeches (0)
- Patricia CHAGNON
Plenary Speeches (0)
Amendments | Dossier |
50 |
2022/2015(INI)
2023/02/03
AFCO
50 amendments...
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion Recital A a (new) A a. whereas transparency and integrity crucially contribute to the fight against corruption and maladministration; whereas Parliament called for an ambitious ethics body in its resolution of 16 September 2021;
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 1 1. Insists that the EU institutions have the obligation to implement Article 15(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union in line with democratic principles, in particular those laid down in Article 10(3) of the Treaty on European Union; emphasises that transparency is fundamental to enable accountability and democratic scrutiny of the EU institutions;
Amendment 11 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 1 a (new) 1 a. Stresses that for there to be effective access to the European institutions' documents, it is not enough for them to be available online – they must also be translated into all the official languages of the European Union; regrets, in this regard, that a great deal of information is only available in English;
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 1 a (new) 1 a. Stresses the need to ensure that citizens are able to follow, understand and participate in order to bring them closer to the decision-making process;
Amendment 13 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 1 b (new) 1 b. Stresses that the pandemic and the changes in the institutions' working procedures may have slowed down the processing of requests for access to documents; stresses that the institutions must put in place mechanisms to ensure that the highest level of transparency and access to documents is maintained, even in the event of a crisis;
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 2 2.
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 2 2.
Amendment 16 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 2 2. Emphasises that any update to
Amendment 17 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 2 2. Emphasises that any update to Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, whether with regard to the extension of its institutional scope or its recast, should faithfully integrate the principles established by the case law and adapt the regulation to technological developments without constituting a step back compared to the current legislative framework;
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 2 a (new) 2 a. Emphasises that increased transparency in the Union's decision- making is the result of democratic development and the culture of participation; recalls that a balanced framework is needed in which the interests of the Union are safeguarded and which is consistent for all institutions;
Amendment 19 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 2 b (new) 2 b. Invites the EU institutions to improve findability and accessibility of the documents related to search on their internet pages;
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion Recital A a (new) A a. whereas transparency and accountability are a precondition for citizens’ trust in EU institutions;
Amendment 20 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 3 3.
Amendment 21 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 3 3. Invites the EU institutions to ensure the provision of data concerning the implementation of Union policies in an open, machine-
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 3 3.
Amendment 23 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 3 3. Invites the EU institutions to ensure
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 3 3. Invites the EU institutions to ensure the provision of data in an open, user- friendly machine-
Amendment 25 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 4. Invites Parliament’s own relevant bodies to ensure that documents are easily accessible to the public; calls, in particular, for amending Rule 122(3) of the Rules of Procedure to ensure the provision of data in an open, machine- readable format;
Amendment 26 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 4. Invites Parliament’s own relevant bodies to
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 4. Invites Parliament’s own relevant bodies to ensure that documents are easily accessible
Amendment 28 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 a (new) 4 a. Emphasises that citizens, in order to make use of their right of access to documents of the Union's institutions laid down in Article 15(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, need to be given access in their respective languages; invites all EU institutions to ensure the provision of requested documents in all official EU languages;
Amendment 29 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 a (new) 4 a. Calls for a user-friendly system on the European Parliament's website whereby for each roll-call vote, the text voted on and the voting results can be filtered by group and by MEP; further calls for the roll-call vote results, the MEP presence data and the text put to the vote, to be made available in machine- readable formats;
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion Recital A b (new) A b. whereas transparency is corollary of the principles of openness enshrined in the EU treaties;
Amendment 30 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 a (new) 4 a. Calls on all relevant EU institutions to increase the number and to enlarge the categories of documents they directly make available in their public registers;
Amendment 31 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 5 5. Calls for all EU institutions to fully comply with the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union in Case T- 540/152 on access to trilogue documents; remains ready to engage with the Council and the Commission to jointly define the legislative milestones for which access to documents must be ensured; _________________ 2 Judgment of 22 March 2018, Emilio De
Amendment 32 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 6 6. Regrets the fact that the Council systematically refuses to grant access to its internal documents under the pretence of protecting its decision-making process; stresses that the lack of transparency affects both public scrutiny and the cooperation with the other institutions, notably the European Parliament;
Amendment 33 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 7 7. Insists that the Council should
Amendment 34 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 7 7. Insists that the Council should improve its rules and procedures on legislative transparency, including the accessibility and classification of legislative documents; recalls, however, that the Council also works with a large number of documents of a sensitive nature and must ensure the highest level of protection against unauthorised access;
Amendment 35 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 7 7. Insists that the Council should improve its rules and procedures on legislative transparency, including the accessibility and classification of legislative documents with the aim of working as openly as possible;
Amendment 36 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 7 a (new) 7 a. Highlights the importance of the recent judgement of the CJEU in Case T- 163/21 on access to legislative documents of Council’s working groups concluding that access to legislative documents must be as wide as possible and that exceptions could apply only if access to such documents would specifically, effectively and in a non-hypothetical manner seriously undermine the possibility of reaching an agreement on the legislative proposal in question;
Amendment 37 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 7 a (new) 7 a. Recalls that the Council as any other institution has the obligation to demonstrate how and why publication of the information would harm a legitimate interest protected by one of the exceptions; points out that it should explain why it considers this harm substantial enough to override the public interest in accessing that document;
Amendment 38 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 7 a (new) 7 a. Recalls that a corruption scandal such as the one affecting the EU institutions may increase the interest of citizens and organisations in access to documents; calls on the institutions to prioritise transparency and avoid opaque practices;
Amendment 39 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 7 a (new) 7 a. Calls on the Council to fully comply with the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union in T- 163/21 De Capitani v. Council on access to documents developed by the Council in its working groups;
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion Recital B B. whereas the purpose 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 documents1 is to confer on the public the widest possible right of access to the documents of the institutions, in order to effectively exercise their right to scrutinise the work and activities of the EU institutions; whereas, in light of this right and recent case law, any exceptions have to be interpreted and applied strictly and the institutions have the obligation to demonstrate how disclosure would specifically and actually undermine the interests protected by the exceptions; _________________ 1 OJ L 145, 31.5.2001, p. 43.
Amendment 40 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 7 b (new) 7 b. Insists that all EU institutions, participating in trilogues, follow Article 12 of Regulation (EC) 1049/2001 making legislative documents, that is to say, documents drawn up or received in the course of procedures for the adoption of acts which are legally binding in or for the Member States, directly accessible; interprets that the categories of documents which are to be directly accessible through Parliament's public register website shall include preparatory legislative documents as recognised by the CJEU’s jurisprudence, no matter if authored by the Parliament alone or together with the other institutions, such as political and technical trilogue documents, including but not limited to all versions of the joint multi-column document referred to in the Code of Conduct for negotiating in the context of the ordinary legislative procedure;
Amendment 41 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 7 b (new) 7 b. Insists that the systematic publication of the mandate to start trilogue negotiations and of the final position of the Council endorsing the outcome of the negotiations is a bare minimum and that in order to mirror the transparency of Parliament in the legislative negotiations, the Council should also systematically record the identity of Member States when they express their positions in Council;
Amendment 42 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 8 8. Underlines that the European Ombudsman plays an important role in facilitating citizens’ access to documents
Amendment 43 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 8 a (new) 8 a. Stresses that transparency in the decision-making process increases citizens' willingness to accept the political choices made; regrets, in this regard, that although Article 4(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 provides for an exception to access to documents of the institutions where the protection of the commercial interests of a natural or legal person, including intellectual property, is concerned, the Commission has nevertheless failed in its duty of transparency by not making public, in the context of the contracts for the purchase of vaccines against Covid-19, information relating to the manufacturers' liability, the price of the doses sold and the dates and volumes of doses delivered to each Member State;
Amendment 44 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 8 a (new) 8 a. Welcomes the Ombudsman’s Decision on the Commission's refusal of public access to text messages exchanged between the Commission President and the CEO of a pharmaceutical company on the purchase of a COVID 19 vaccine finding maladministration by the Commission; recalls that text messages are considered documents by Regulation 1049/2001 regardless of the registration criteria used by the Commission or any other EU institution, body, office or agency; calls on the Commission to follow the Ombudsman’s recommendations;
Amendment 45 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 8 a (new) 8 a. Condemns Frontex's misrepresentation of meetings with lobby organisations between 2017 and 2019, many of which were not registered in the transparency register at the time of the meeting; notes that Frontex's false statements were only uncovered after journalists made use of their right to access relevant documents; calls, in line with the Ombudsman's own-initiative inquiry 4/2021/MHZ, on Frontex to improve the transparency of its operations;
Amendment 46 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 8 a (new) 8 a. Recalls that the Court of Justice has observed that it is precisely transparency concerning legal advice that contributes to conferring greater legitimacy on the institutions in the eyes of European citizens and increasing their confidence in them by allowing divergences between various points of view to be openly debated (judgment of 4 September 2018, ClientEarth v Commission);
Amendment 47 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 8 b (new) 8 b. Stresses that European citizens, as taxpayers, have a legitimate interest in knowing how EU funds are used; regrets, in this context, that the written notification sent to Hungary in connection with the application of Article 6(1) of Regulation 2020/2092 was not made public on the grounds that the exceptions referred to in Articles 4(1)(4), 4(2)(2) and (3) and 4(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 were applicable, relating in particular to the protection of the public interest of the Union, the protection of court proceedings and legal advice, and the objectives of inspection, investigation and audit activities;
Amendment 48 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 8 b (new) 8 b. Regrets that case OC/2021/0451/A1 of OLAF was not publicly accessible until leaked through journalists; stresses that Frontex's cover- ups of human rights violations are in contradiction to Articles 2, 3, 6 and 21 of the Treaty on European Union and Article 205 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and undermine the legitimacy of the European Union's executive actions;
Amendment 49 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 8 b (new) 8 b. Recalls conclusion 39 of the Conference on the Future of Europe, asking to “ensure transparency of decision-making by allowing independent citizens’ observers to closely follow the decision-making process, guaranteeing broader right of access to documents, and develop on this basis stronger links and an enhanced dialogue between citizens and the EU institutions;
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion Recital B B. whereas the purpose 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 documents1 is to confer on the public the
Amendment 50 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 8 c (new) 8 c. Regrets that in 2021, following a request for public access to text messages between the Commission President and the CEO of a pharmaceutical company regarding the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines, the Commission refused to comply with a journalist's request to grant access to these text messages; recognises that this also resulted from the absence of a clear regulation on what constitutes a 'document'; supports a broad interpretation of the concept of ‘document’, which would include such work-related text and instant messages; supports the Ombudsman’s finding of maladministration by the Commission in this case as well as the Ombudsman’s practical recommendations on how to record text and instant messages sent or received by staff members in their professional capacity; notes that the Commission's behaviour has hurt citizens' trust and undermined public scrutiny of the Union's work;
Amendment 6 #
Draft opinion Recital B a (new) B a. whereas in 2021 the most often occurring reason for the refusal of access to documents by Council was the protection of the Council’s decision- making process amounting to 223 cases; whereas of 1327 legislative documents issued as LIMITE, 839 were eventually made public on request, indicating that LIMITE is used excessively and not reviewed sufficiently by Council itself with a view of making them public and increasing transparency;
Amendment 7 #
Draft opinion Recital B a (new) B a. whereas Article 15(3) TFEU, which has been inserted by the Lisbon Treaty, extends the scope of the transparency obligation to all institutions, bodies, offices and agencies, while the ECB, the EIB and the CJEU are only covered in the exercise of their administrative tasks;
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion Recital B a (new) B a. whereas the Conference on the Future of Europe included among its proposals and measures on decision- making the guarantee of a wide right of access to documents;
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 1 1. Insists that the EU institutions have the obligation to implement Article 15(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union in line with democratic principles, in particular those laid down in Article 10(3) of the Treaty on European Union
source: 735.468
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History
(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)
2023-02-14Show (1) Changes | Timetravel
docs/1 |
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2023-02-07Show (1) Changes | Timetravel
forecasts |
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2023-01-19Show (1) Changes | Timetravel
docs/0/docs/0/url |
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/LIBE-PR-740656_EN.html
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2023-01-13Show (1) Changes | Timetravel
docs |
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2022-07-20Show (1) Changes | Timetravel
committees/0/shadows |
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2022-06-15Show (1) Changes | Timetravel
procedure/subject/1.20.05 |
Public access to information and documents, administrative practice
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2022-06-03Show (2) Changes | Timetravel
committees/0/rapporteur |
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procedure/subject/1.20.05 |
Public access to information and documents, administrative practice
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2022-04-03Show (1) Changes | Timetravel
committees/1/rapporteur |
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2022-03-08Show (1) Changes
committees/1 |
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