Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-05-02-Speech-3-105"
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"en.20010502.7.3-105"2
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"Mr President, Madam President-in-Office of the Council, I would like to know what is going on, please. You talk about a crowning achievement, a historical decision, a milestone. It reminds me of Faust – Gretchen would have liked to record this day.
which is what this is about, the European Federation of Journalists, and so on say that rather than enshrining the rights of citizens, it undermines what we have been discussing today and will be voting on. It says that the current code enshrines the rights of Member States, albeit in different form. If I interpret this, it reminds me of Goethe, of Faust, again: "I hear the message well, but I have little faith." Maybe an attempt is being made to find a compromise position, perhaps today is not such a historical day. But receiving the EU's proposal here is rather like getting to see a new car. "Now you can have a look!" they tell us. We certainly will.
It is not long since the European transparency initiative was launched, an initiative taken so as to provide as many of Europe's citizens as possible with access to as many documents as possible, including those relating to Council meetings. Will we now get to see what documents really exist and which ones are sensitive? What does sensitivity mean? We are all very sensitive. How will you interpret sensitivity? Will you tell us that we can look at the car, but the motor is sensitive, the seat is sensitive and the steering wheel is sensitive? Or will we get there and see the whole car? I believe that there is room for optimism when you look at the example of the United States. It took decades until the Freedom of Information Act was passed, and even they started off by just having a first look at the car. But I hope that the Presidency and their successors will not come to us in future and complain about money, and say that it is too expensive if we ask for detailed information. There is money available for that. In the USA, the Freedom of Information Act costs USD 40 million every year. The bill for the American Government's public relations is USD 1.5 billion.
I share the opinion of our rapporteur, Mr Cashman, who is to be congratulated. He says that this is something that will develop by itself. We are relying on it developing by itself up to 2004. I believe that we should not be holier-than-thou about this, but that we should make a start here in this House when it comes to transparency."@en1
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