Denmark drops reform of EU access to documents rules as disagreements prove insurmountable

20 June 2012– The Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU yesterday gave up on trying to reach an agreement between the European Commission, the Parliament and the Member States on reform of the rules that govern public access to EU documents.

With the European Parliament standing firmly in favour of greater transparency for citizens, and the European Commission pressing for amendments to the Regulation that would exclude entire classes of information or narrow the definition of a document, the agreement hinged on an agreement between the 27 Member States meeting in the Council. read more

Six months on…

It has been over six months since we launched AsktheEU.org in the European Parliament in Brussels.

Since then, there have been over 100 requests to the EU institutions and bodies made by individuals as well as on behalf of organisations. About 30% of these requests have been classified by AsktheEU.org users as partially or fully successful. EU institutions and bodies told 13 requesters they did not hold the information, and only 3 requests have been refused. read more

AsktheEU.org attends #AlaveteliCon

This week, representatives of AsktheEU.org and Access Info Europe attended the successful (and first ever) #AlaveteliCon, organised by MySociety in Oxford on 2nd and 3rd April 2012.

The event was attended by other Alaveteli installations from the UK, Europe and South America and included representatives from a variety of organisations from across the world who were interested in installing the software, learning more about it or bringing their experiences of requesting freedom of information in their country. read more

First Access to Documents request sent live in the European Parliament

In recognition of the 9th International Right to Know Day, AsktheEU.org was formally launched in the European Parliament this morning at a seminar convened by the European Ombudsman.

The launch of the web portal was celebrated with the first official request sent in front of a diverse public which included of European Parliamentarians, government officials, EU officials, civil society, and journalists.
The request, sent by Access Info Europe’s Executive Director Helen Darbishire to DG Trade asking for information about the mandate for EU-India free trade negotiations. DG Trade responded with an acknowledgment during the event, enabling a live demonstration of the site’s potential. read more

AsktheEU.org: New one-stop portal makes requests for EU documents easy

Brussels/Madrid, Wednesday 28 September 2011 – on 28 September 2011, the 9th International Right to Know Day, pro-transparency human rights group Access Info Europe will be unveiling the AsktheEU.org web portal by which the public can ask for information from EU bodies.

AsktheEU.org is a designed to radically simplify the process by which the public puts requests to European Union bodies: an email is sent from the website to the relevant EU body. All requests sent via AsktheEU.org and the responses are instantly made public. Requesters will have the opportunity to “me too” a request so that more than one person receives the answer, easing the workload on EU officials. read more