[open-government] Spain: Draft Regulation Limits Already Weak Transparency Law

Mon Jul 13 15:21:35 UTC 2015

*Spain: Draft Regulation Limits Already Weak Transparency Law*

cdm/Madrid, 13 July 2015/ - Access Info Europe 
<http://www.access-info.org/esp/17363> and the 65-member Coalición Pro 
Acceso have strongly criticised the draft implementing Regulation 
<http://www.access-info.org/wp-content/uploads/2015_07_10_Comentarios_AIE_Reglamento.pdf> 
for Spain’s transparency law as a deliberate attempt by the government 
to further limit an already weak law and have called for it to be 
redrafted with urgency.

Particularly egregious features of the Regulation include inverting the 
public interest test so that the balance tips in favour of secrecy, and 
reducing further the kinds of information that can be requested.

In response to a poorly-publicised consultation on the draft, the 
concerns raised in the civil society submission include the total 
exclusion of Committee of Ministers’ (Cabinet) deliberations by 
reference to a 1997 law, and subjugating the transparency law to any 
other specific law that limits access.

The Regulation also closes the door on the possibility of making 
requests by email or post, permitting requests only via the transparency 
portal or in person. Currently requests can only be submitted by the few 
Spanish citizens and residents with an electronic ID or special access 
code that is hard to obtain.

Coming 6 months after the transparency law entered into force (and 18 
months after it was originally adopted), the draft Regulation in many 
places fails to clarify key terms – such as precisely what is an 
“internal document” – but also broadens them in a way that curbs access, 
for example by excluding from the scope of the right to ask any 
documents which “contain opinions”.

“/This draft regulation contains provisions that fly in the face of 
international standards and also which illegitimately restrict the right 
to information beyond the already limited provisions of the transparency 
law,”/ said Helen Darbishire, Executive Director of Access Info Europe.

The submission also points to places where the Regulation is simply 
badly drafted, such as the way it muddies the waters about the formats 
in which information can be obtained, by not making clear if the 
provision refers to the preferred means for delivering the information 
or the actual format in which the data is disclosed.

Access Info Europe noted that may of the provisions of both the Law and 
the Regulation run counter to the standards of the Council of Europe 
Convention on Access to Official Documents which has not yet been signed 
by Spain.

“/It is particularly disappointing to see these developments given that 
Spain is a member of the Open Government Partnership and that the 
transparency law was one of the flagship commitments of its first action 
plan,/” added Darbishire.
*
**You can read the full submission (in Spanish) here**in **Word 
<http://www.access-info.org/wp-content/uploads/2015_07_10_Comentarios_AIE_Reglamento.docx>**and 
**PDF 
<http://www.access-info.org/wp-content/uploads/2015_07_10_Comentarios_AIE_Reglamento.pdf>*

*For more information, please contact:*
*Helen Darbishire |* Access Info Europe
helen at access-info.org <mailto:helen at access-info.org> +34 667 685 319

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