Regulation 2001/1049 - Public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents

Please note

This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.

1.

Current status

This regulation has been published on May 31, 2001 and entered into force on June  3, 2001.

2.

Key information

official title

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
 
Legal instrument Regulation
Number legal act Regulation 2001/1049
Original proposal COM(2000)30 EN
CELEX number i 32001R1049

3.

Key dates

Document 30-05-2001
Publication in Official Journal 31-05-2001; Special edition in Polish: Chapter 01 Volume 003,Special edition in Maltese: Chapter 01 Volume 003,OJ L 145, 31.5.2001,Special edition in Slovak: Chapter 01 Volume 003,Special edition in Czech: Chapter 01 Volume 003,Special edition in Slovenian: Chapter 01 Volume 003,Special edition in Latvian: Chapter 01 Volume 003,Special edition in Croatian: Chapter 01 Volume 016,Special edition in Hungarian: Chapter 01 Volume 003,Special edition in Lithuanian: Chapter 01 Volume 003,Special edition in Estonian: Chapter 01 Volume 003,Special edition in Romanian: Chapter 01 Volume 003,Special edition in Bulgarian: Chapter 01 Volume 003
Effect 03-06-2001; Entry into force Date pub. + 3 See Art 19
03-12-2001; Application See Art 19
End of validity 31-12-9999

4.

Legislative text

Avis juridique important

|

5.

32001R1049

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

Official Journal L 145 , 31/05/2001 P. 0043 - 0048

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

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 255(2) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission(1),

Acting in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 251 of the Treaty(2),

Whereas:

  • (1) 
    The second subparagraph of Article 1 of the Treaty on European Union enshrines the concept of openness, stating that the Treaty marks a new stage in the process of creating an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe, in which decisions are taken as openly as possible and as closely as possible to the citizen.
  • (2) 
    Openness enables citizens to participate more closely in the decision-making process and guarantees that the administration enjoys greater legitimacy and is more effective and more accountable to the citizen in a democratic system. Openness contributes to strengthening the principles of democracy and respect for fundamental rights as laid down in Article 6 of the EU Treaty and in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
  • (3) 
    The conclusions of the European Council meetings held at Birmingham, Edinburgh and Copenhagen stressed the need to introduce greater transparency into the work of the Union institutions. This Regulation consolidates the initiatives that the institutions have already taken with a view to improving the transparency of the decision-making process.
  • (4) 
    The purpose of this Regulation is to give the fullest possible effect to the right of public access to documents and to lay down the general principles and limits on such access in accordance with Article 255(2) of the EC Treaty.
  • (5) 
    Since the question of access to documents is not covered by provisions of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community and the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community, the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission should, in accordance with Declaration No 41 attached to the Final Act of the Treaty of Amsterdam, draw guidance from this Regulation as regards documents concerning the activities covered by those two Treaties.
  • (6) 
    Wider access should be granted to documents in cases where the institutions are acting in their legislative capacity, including under delegated powers, while at the same time preserving the effectiveness of the institutions' decision-making process. Such documents should be made directly accessible to the greatest possible extent.
  • (7) 
    In accordance with Articles 28(1) and 41(1) of the EU Treaty, the right of access also applies to documents relating to the common foreign and security policy and to police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters. Each institution should respect its security rules.
  • (8) 
    In order to ensure the full application of this Regulation to all activities of the Union, all agencies established by the institutions should apply the principles laid down in this Regulation.
  • (9) 
    On account of their highly sensitive content, certain documents should be given special treatment. Arrangements for informing the European Parliament of the content of such documents should be made through interinstitutional agreement.
  • (10) 
    In order to bring about greater openness in the work of the institutions, access to documents should be granted by the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission not only to documents...

More

This text has been adopted from EUR-Lex.

6.

Original proposal

 

7.

Sources and disclaimer

For further information you may want to consult the following sources that have been used to compile this dossier:

This dossier is compiled each night drawing from aforementioned sources through automated processes. We have invested a great deal in optimising the programming underlying these processes. However, we cannot guarantee the sources we draw our information from nor the resulting dossier are without fault.

 

8.

Full version

This page is also available in a full version containing the summary of legislation, the legal context, de Europese rechtsgrond, other dossiers related to the dossier at hand and finally the related cases of the European Court of Justice.

The full version is available for registered users of the EU Monitor by ANP and PDC Informatie Architectuur.

9.

EU Monitor

The EU Monitor enables its users to keep track of the European process of lawmaking, focusing on the relevant dossiers. It automatically signals developments in your chosen topics of interest. Apologies to unregistered users, we can no longer add new users.This service will discontinue in the near future.