[infowar.de] Neues Hintergrundmaterial! Secrecy and Openness in the European Union

[Olivier Minkwitz <minkwitz -! - hsfk - de>]

Infowar.de, http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~bendrath/liste.html
-------------------------------------------------------------

..zeigt auf welchen Widerstand Dänemark und Schweden bei den Staaten
trafen, die eine striktere Politik der Geheimniskrämerei verfolgen
(darunter leider auch Deutschland). Außerdem versucht die NATO der EU
die gleichen Geheimhaltungsprozeduren aufzuzwingen.
Einziger Lichtblick ist die Rolle von zivilen Akteuren und des EU
Ombudsmannes....
Grüsse
O.



New case study from freedominfo.org:
Secrecy and Openness in the European Union

http://www.freedominfo.org/case/eustudy.htm

Today, October 1, 2002, freedominfo.org announces the Web publication of
its
newest case study in the worldwide struggle for openness and freedom of
information - in this case, the decade-long effort to open the
structures of
the European Union (EU).  Authored by Tony Bunyan of the London-based
NGO,
Statewatch, the study starts with the December 1993 code of access to EU

documents and covers every major development up through the June 2002
requirement of public registers - with which the European Commission is
still
not in compliance today.

Bunyan describes the important leadership role taken by a handful of EU
governments, led by Denmark and Sweden and sometimes backed by the
Netherlands, Finland and the UK, in the face of strong opposition from
the
forces of secrecy led by France and backed by Spain and Germany.  On one

particularly contentious openness question in 1996, nine EU states lined
up
for secrecy:  France, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Portugal,
Italy,
Austria and Greece.

Key to the progress to date has been the external challenges from civil
society (journalists, researchers, and voluntary groups), backed by
liberal
judges and a diligent EU ombudsman.  The current compromise Regulation,
in
force since December 2001, has opened new battlegrounds.  While much
more EU
information is now available, especially from the EU Council, thousands
of
documents do not appear on the required registers.  In addition, NATO is

pressuring the EU to comply with NATO secrecy procedures left over from
the
Cold War; and the areas of law enforcement and immigration are
particularly
susceptible to increased secrecy in an official climate dominated by
counter-terrorism.

The virtual network freedominfo.org, funded by the Open Society
Institute and
hosted by staff of the George Washington University's National Security
Archive, is a one-stop portal that describes best practices,
consolidates
lessons learned, explains campaign strategies and tactics, and links the

efforts of freedom of information advocates around the world.

A Summary of the case study, with links to the full report, is available
here:

http://www.freedominfo.org/case/eustudy.htm

--
Olivier Minkwitz___________________________________________
Dipl. Pol.
HSFK Hessische Stiftung für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung
PRIF Peace Research Institute Frankfurt
Leimenrode 29 60322 Frankfurt a/M Germany
Tel +49 (0)69 9591 0422  Fax +49 (0)69 5584 81
http://www.hsfk.de                         pgpKey:0xAD48A592
minkwitz -!
- hsfk -
 de____________________________________________



---------------------------------------------------------------
Liste verlassen: 
Mail an infowar -
 de-request -!
- infopeace -
 de mit "unsubscribe" im Text.