The European Parliament today voted to revise EU rules governing access to public documents in the EU. The Greens welcomed the vote of the EP to push for more documents to be made available to the public, and called on the Council not to block this. After the vote, Dutch Green MEP Judith Sargentini said:

"There is a clear need to roll back the curtain and end some of the secrecy in which the EU institutions work in response to growing mistrust among EU citizens. Improving access to EU public documents would be one important step to this end and we welcome today's vote by the EP to overhaul the current rules.

"The Greens have long argued for greater public access to official documents and welcome the support of the EP to broaden the scope of 'documents' to which the public should have access, as well as proposals to make documents easier to access.

"It is clear that these proposals for greater transparency are being strongly resisted in the Council however, as well as by the EPP group. The Council must give up its smoke and mirrors approach to policy making, and agree to greater transparency."

Richard More O'Ferrall,
Press and media officer,
Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament
Mobile: +32-477-443842 - Ph. +32-22841669 (Brussels); +33-388174042
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