Leppävirta, Liisa; Darbishire, Helen --- "The right to ask … the right to know – the successes and failures in access to documents rules and practices from an NGO perspective" [2017] ELECD 428; in Harlow, Carol; Leino, Päivi; della Cananea, Giacinto (eds), "Research Handbook on EU Administrative Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 399

Book Title: Research Handbook on EU Administrative Law

Editor(s): Harlow, Carol; Leino, Päivi; della Cananea, Giacinto

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781784710675

Section: Chapter 16

Section Title: The right to ask … the right to know – the successes and failures in access to documents rules and practices from an NGO perspective

Author(s): Leppävirta, Liisa; Darbishire, Helen

Number of pages: 24

Abstract/Description:

The first sentence of recital 2 of Regulation 1049/2001 (the Regulation), cited above, condenses the essential justifications for the importance of transparency in our societies. This chapter explores the realization of the right of access to documents in the EU with a view to giving an account of the successes and failures in EU transparency in the recent years. When the Juncker Commission took charge in May 2015, one of the key announcements was a new package of measures that would ‘boost openness and transparency in the EU decision-making process’. The promised measures would include steps to ‘open up its policy making process to further public scrutiny and input’ and increased transparency of secondary legislation, including ‘for the first time’ making draft measures public four weeks before adoption to ‘allow for stakeholder comments prior to their adoption’ by the Commission. These may seem like rather minimalistic measures that confirm the prevailing conception that Brussels is a distant and closed place, alienated from Europe’s 505 million citizens, where decisions are made in closed rooms, over the table with lobbyists, where the revolving doors spin public officials in and out of jobs with big business in sectors such as pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals, and where international trade deals such as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) are stitched up between governments and the financial sector with little concern for the financial or physical wellbeing of individuals and small businesses.