On 30 January 2004, the European Commission published a report about the effectiveness of EU legislation on freedom of information. Article 255 of the treaty establishing the European Community, implemented through Regulation 1049/2001 of 30 May 2001, grants a right of access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents to any Union citizen and to any natural or legal person residing, or having its registered office, in a Member State.
Two years after the implementation of the Regulation, it is hard to judge the effectiveness of the regulation, according to the Commission. The yearly amount of requests has doubled from 2001 to 2002, and the report suggests a similarly strong increase in 2003. Still, the total amount of requests remains low, namely 4.022 in 2002.
In 2002 the Commission declined full access in 27.6 percent of the cases, mostly based on the exception of protecting its work of inspection, investigation and auditing. The Council declined full access in 23.6 percent of the cases, mostly based on the much criticised vague exception of 'public security', i.e. covering external and security policy, defence and co-operation on justice and home affairs.
So far, only one ruling had been issued by the Court of First Instance and eleven complaints had been resolved by the Ombudsman. The report refrains from strong conclusions, but repeatedly laments the workload for the commission caused by some applications that are 'unfair, repetitive or clearly unreasonable'.
Report from the Commission COM 2004-45 (30.01.2004) http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/com/rpt/2004/com2004_0045en01.pdf
DO IT YOURSELF ACCESS TO EUROPEAN DOCUMENTS
Website EU Council documents (very useful)
http://register.consilium.eu.int/utfregister/frames/introfsEN.htm
Website European Commission documents (much less useful)
http://europa.eu.int/comm/secretariat_general/sgc/acc_doc/index_en.htm
Website European Parliament documents (overview of many commmunication
options)
http://www.europarl.eu.int/opengov/default_noscript_en.htm