Finland organises a seminar on access to EU documents

The Commission gave a proposal to reform the EU’s current Regulation on access to documents from 2001 in April 2008. According to the Commission, the purpose of its proposal is to increase transparency. Finland believes, however, that if adopted in the proposed form, the proposal would be more restrictive than the current rules on access to documents. The Commission proposes to exclude some document categories totally from the scope of implementation of the Regulation. The Commission also proposes that documents be accessible to the public only if they are registered and meet certain technical requirements.

The purpose of the seminar is to enable a wider discussion of the reforms proposed by the Commission and to seek alternative solutions to the challenges identified by the Commission that would be compatible with the objective of increasing openness in the Union.

In addition to representatives of the EU institutions even other parties with varying experiences from the functioning of the Regulation have been invited to present their views. Among the speakers are Michael Cashman and Anneli Jäätteenmäki, both Members of the European Parliament, Cecilia Malmström, the Swedish Minister for EU Affairs and Peter Hustinx, the European Data Protection Supervisor.

The seminar will be opened by Astrid Thors, Minister of Migration and European Affairs, who acted as the draftswoman for the current Regulation in the European Parliament Committee for Petitions in 2000-2001. Heidi Hautala, Chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee in the Parliament of Finland and previously draftswoman for the Regulation in the European Parliament Committee for Legal Affairs, will act as the Chair of the event. Concluding remarks will be presented by Jacob Söderman, vice-chairman of the Constitutional Law Committee in the Parliament of Finland and previously European Ombudsman (1995–2003).

Increased openness of the functioning of the Union has been one of the central objectives of Finland since it became a member of the EU. Finland participated actively in the negotiations that led to the adoption of the current Regulation 1049/2001 and believes that its fundamental principles have proved successful. The Regulation covers all documents held by the institutions. Documents are, as the main rule, available for the public, but access to them can, when necessary, be limited based on the exceptions established by the Regulation.

The program of the seminar can be found below. The seminar will be held in English.

The event is open for the public. Please register by 5 December 2008 with johanna.paljakka (at) formin.fi.

Additional information:

Päivi Leino-Sandberg, Counsellor of Legislation, telephone +358-9-160 67774, e-mail: paivi.leino-sandberg (at) om.fi