Public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents

The recently published European Ombudsman Report for 2005 contains details of cases investigated under the EU FOI provision - Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents.

"Regulation 1049/2001 gives applicants a choice of remedy: they may challenge a refusal either in court proceedings under Article 230 of the EC Treaty or by complaining to the Ombudsman. During 2005, the Ombudsman made decisions on 14 complaints concerning the application of Regulation 1049/2001, of which 11 were against the Commission, two against the Council and one against the European Parliament."

Read the report (PDF) see p48

worth noting that in 2005 for the first time since the Regulation on access to EU documents came into force in December 2001 an applicant won a case in the ECJ against the Commission (more details)