Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-12-12-Speech-3-161"
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"en.20011212.5.3-161"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, last month I came here to witness Parliament’s adoption of the report by Mrs Maij-Weggen on amending Parliament’s Rules of Procedure regarding public access to the documents of the three institutions. This brought to an end some quite considerable work by Mrs Maij-Weggen, and also, if I may say so, by Mr Cashman.
A week ago, and a few days after the Council, the Commission adopted a decision amending its own Rules of Procedure. Prior to this, on 28 November, we held a discussion to ensure the regulation is applied with the greatest transparency. It is true that we needed a few extra days for this. This is why the definitive decision of the Commission was only taken on 5 December. This prompted a number of questions, and your President raised the issue with us. I would like to reassure you in no uncertain terms that, in practice, these few days of delay had no repercussions for citizens. The Commission has in fact been implementing the regulation of 30 May since 3 December. Accordingly, we have a central point of access to the Secretariat-General of the Commission. We have a postal address, an e-mail address and a fax number available for people to use. It is also possible to consult the Commission’s website. In addition, there is the new access guide produced by ourselves, which you have discussed, Minister. This will be available on the website from next week.
Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, as far as we are concerned, all the practical measures necessary for the implementation of the regulation are in place. In fact, the Commission services have already started processing applications to access the new database established in accordance with the regulation. Article 18 of the regulation provides not only for the amendment of the Rules of Procedure, but also for the amendment of other existing provisions. Therefore, the appropriate services of the Commission have checked whether the 1983 regulation on opening historical archives to the public was in accordance with the regulation on access to documents. Some changes were needed. The Commission will shortly put to the Council and Parliament a proposal to change the regulation on historical archives.
The third consideration also concerns Article 18 of the regulation of 30 May. The Commission’s services have drawn up a list of the rules which are to be found throughout Community law which concern access to documents or information within existing Community legislation. This work has allowed us to identify almost fifty provisions that the Commission will examine in the light of the new regulation. All provisions that do not comply with the new rules on access to documents will either be modified or repealed.
The fourth point I wanted to make today concerns how the regulation can be applied to agencies. Mrs Maij-Weggen and Mr Cashman, I understand that this is one of your concerns, which you have rightly raised. The matter is included in the joint declaration adopted along with the regulation. Work is under way on this issue too. Since adopting the new regulation, the Commission has provided the agencies with information on it and had invited them to re-examine their own rules on access in the light of the regulation. The existing instruments of incorporation of the agencies will be modified. An additional clause will be included in the instruments of incorporation of new agencies.
Lastly, ladies and gentlemen, the Commission’s services have drawn up a guide to inform citizens of their rights under the regulation. In the first instance, this guide will be available on the Commission’s website in a few days’ time. However, in the near future, we plan to develop a common citizens’ guide on all three institutions. I hope this will happen soon.
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I have outlined all the work that the Commission has undertaken to implement this regulation on access to documents. This work will of course be followed up by an interinstitutional committee. The committee will be set up shortly and will establish a firm foundation for our cooperation in implementing this new regulation. Minister, I was pleased to hear you refer to the compromise proposal made by my colleague Mrs Loyola de Palacio on 28 November in the three-way discussion. She put it forward because a solution has to be found. I would like to thank you Minister for having noted that Mrs de Palacio put forward this compromise proposal with due regard for Parliament’s concern that political authority should play its full part in the interinstitutional committee.
In order to apply the regulation, each institution has worked independently to modify their own Rules of Procedure when they judged it appropriate. For its part, the Commission will continue to respect this independence. The Commission hopes to respect the spirit and the letter of this new regulation, which, we believe, represents a real step forward in terms of transparency and democracy within the European Union."@en1
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