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Bram Vranken is a researcher and campaigner with the Belgian peace organisation Vredesactie. He works on topics related to arms lobbying in the European Union and the international arms trade.
Alejandra: Hi Bram, great to talk to you today. To start off, could you tell me what has been the most relevant information you have obtained through AsktheEU.org?
Vicky is a campaigner for Corporate Europe Observatory, a research and campaign group working to expose and challenge the privileged access and influence enjoyed by corporations and lobby groups in EU policy making.
Alejandra: Vicky, thank you for joining me this morning. You have made around 400 requests on AsktheEU.org, so certainly you are one of our most active users. When we last interviewed you, you told us that you were working on the issues of revolving doors and lobby transparency. Are you still working on that or have you changed your focus to another issue?
Adrián Blanco Ramos is a graphics reporter at The Washington Post. He previously worked as a data journalist at El Confidencial, focusing on data visualization, data analysis and investigative journalism. He participated in the International Consortium of Investigative Journalist’s Paradise Papers investigation. He also interned at the Spanish international news agency Agencia EFE, Radio Televisión Española and the Times of London.
Hans Wetzels (1982) is a freelance investigative journalist from the Netherlands. He currently lives in Berlin and Landgraaf, and has experience working in and from countries like Kenya, Nepal, Angola or Ukraine and knows his way around Brussels and the European institutions. His work has been published in several Dutch, Belgian and international media, such as Vrij Nederland, Down to Earth Magazine, MO* Magazine, Africa Renewal or Deutsche Welle. Hans is a member of the Green New Deal for Europe campaign launched by the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25) and likes to play his bass guitar whenever possible.
Madrid, 1 June 2020 – Pro-transparency human rights organisation Access Info Europe is glad to launch AsktheEU Pro, an improved version of the AsktheEU.org account designed to upgrade journalists and researchers’ experience when requesting access to documents from the EU bodies and institutions.
Nikolaj Nielsen is a Danish-born journalist who has been working at the EUobserver since 2012.
Alejandra: Thanks for taking the time in talking to us, Nikolaj! We first wanted to ask you about the most relevant or interesting information you have obtained via this platform. Could you talk to us about it?
A survey of 95 users of the request platform AsktheEU.org, carried out by the Access Info team in February 2020, has found that three quarters (75%) report being increasingly disappointed with EU authorities’ responses, both in terms of the long delays in receiving answers and being dissatisfied with the information provided.
Friday 25 October 2019 – Open Knowledge France, the local group of the Cambridge-based NGO Open Knowledge Foundation, with the support of Access Info Europe, launches madada.fr, an online service aiming to simplify requests for access to information in France.
The main objective of Ma Dada platform is to help researchers, companies, journalists, associations or citizens who wish to exercise their right of access to public information, in a free, open-access service.
Chapter One: The dark knights at a secret meeting
It was the beginning of the year 2014 when the European Commission first announced the creation of an “EU Internet Forum.” But it would take almost two years and several meetings before its official launch on 3 December 2015.
The Forum’s mission: to “counter terrorist content and hate speech online.”
Madrid, 22 May 2015 – Following AlaveteliCon 2015 in Madrid on 19-20 May, Access Info Europe’s director Helen Darbishire, reflects on 3.5 years of running the AsktheEU.org website for making documents requests to the European Union.
In particular she notes the successes, challenges and lessons learned about the relationship with the EU Institutions and public officials.
