Transcript of this video

What is the right of access to EU documents, and why is it important?

The EU institutions are obliged to keep records of documents relevant to their work and any EU citizen can request to view them. Accessing documents can help members of the public or civil society follow EU law making, or help journalists investigating stories about the EU. This transparency enables the public to hold the institutions to account.

How can the public access documents held by the EU institutions?

People can contact the EU institutions to request access to specific documents or ask that the institution identify documents on a specific matter and disclose them. If an institution refuses access to documents, a person can turn to the European Ombudsman or the Courts. We seek to deal with such complaints as swiftly as possible using a special Fast-Track procedure.

Access to EU documents: what needs to change?

The EU institutions could be more proactive in making documents available to the public, particularly where they concern policy and law making. The procedure for requesting access documents can also be cumbersome and slow. Access delayed is access denied, and the EU institutions should be more sensitive to this. Finally, law making has changed over the past twenty years, with new forms of communication and document formats involved. The EU needs to ensure the right of access to documents is a meaningful transparency tool for the times we live in.