Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-01-13-Speech-2-265"
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"en.20090113.26.2-265"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I offer my very warm thanks to the Commissioner. I did not mention this before but the report acknowledges that there has been an improvement in effective access, in positive responses to applications for access to documents. What I have tried to stress is the need for a change of mindset, you might call it, to a paradigm whereby information is already designed to be public the moment it is produced.
Mrs Cederschiöld, I am not asking for more paperwork due to the need to disclose and publicise everything, but for a system that is already set up to ensure that we not only have access to a document when we ask for it, but that we also have access to information at the moment it is produced, while naturally respecting confidentiality regarding political groups and political group meetings. This is also addressed to Mrs Doyle, and to Mr Herrero, who has left.
I am talking here about greater and easier availability of information; of course, this does not mean that groups would no longer be able to hold meetings behind closed doors. I am not talking about an absolute and ideological obligation applying to any meeting, but about ensuring that the infrastructure is in place if we want it. I do not believe it to be true, as Mr Herrero said, that information on attendances, votes and so on is fully kept and fully available. That is not true. Minutes are available for individual committees and the information can only be put together by conducting a meeting-by-meeting investigation.
I personally have been a direct victim of this. An Italian newspaper published banner headlines saying that I was absent more than anyone else, simply because I started mid-term and they based their calculations on the few months after I joined, comparing the attendances to the previous three years. This is an example to show that we ourselves must make the information available to allow maximum transparency, in order to prevent the manipulation and abuse of this information.
I am well aware that the worth of an MEP’s work does not lie solely in attendances and absences, but I cannot understand the reason why we ourselves should half conceal this information, opening the door to the worst and most demagogic kinds of manipulation. I therefore hope that on these aspects and on the aspect of access to data by disabled people – I cannot imagine why the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats has asked for a separate vote on this – I really hope that we do not have any last-minute surprises because I think this is a matter of fundamental importance for everyone. Mr President, thank you for your understanding."@en1
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