Open Government in the EU

On 19 and 20 May 2011, the first Global Conference on Transparency Research was held at Rutgers University, Newark, USA.

This was the first conference on transparency matters on a global scale, in many ways very relevant, one might even say overdue, in the light of such current developments as the reform of the EU access to documents law and the Wikileaks controversy. It was co-organised by expert researchers with a long-standing interest and extensive experience in this research area such as Suzanne Piotrowski, Alasdair Roberts, Jean-Patrick Villeneuve and Lorenzo Hall. (more…)

Not only in the EU is a debate (or should we say, battle) still ongoing over the meaning and usefulness of transparency. Also in the Netherlands has a member of government sought to reopen a fundamental discussion on the current WOB-regime.

WOB is the Dutch equivalent of FOI and comes from the Dutch term Wet Openbaarheid van Bestuur (Law of Administrative Openness). A recent series of public statements made by the Dutch Minister for Home Affairs Donner suggest that the Dutch Government might consider rolling back the current arrangements. (more…)

On 21 March of this year, Access Info Europe, a Madrid-based advocacy organisation favouring greater access for citizen to government information, published a report on the state of play in the EU’s transparency policy.

In their report, AIE had wanted to list the positions of all of the EU’s 27 member state governments in the ongoing reform talks of the current access to documents legislation (regulation 1049/2001/ec). However, the researchers gradually concluded that 16 out of 27 member states refused to put forward a position on this matter. A large part of the report is therefore devoted to the application procedures that the researchers went through, as well to the patchwork interpretation of various of the EU’s member states. It makes for insightful, interesting reading on the current state of affairs when it comes to implementing regulation 1049.

The full report can be downloaded here. Click here if you want to find out more about AIE’s mission and strategy. –MH