ACCESS TO EUROPEAN UNION ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION AND DOCUMENTS

Abstract

Access to information is a right recognized by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights approved in 1948. The European Union is a democratic entity which also defends the respect to fundamental rights and freedoms. EU, as public administration, has included in its regulatory corpus some rules to regulate the right people have to access to its administrative documents. Starting from these premises, this article intends to do a descriptive and analytical review of the current regulations on the right to access to public information of the European Union. As information generated by public administrations supposes an increasing interest field for scientific environment of documentation, we will describe, from an informative point of view, how relations between administration and citizen are articulated, therefore we will take as a reference point some reports elaborated by the European Ombudsman. Then, we will examine the legal framework of principles and exceptions of the right to access to information in the European environment, and specially the currently in force regulations which is in revising process. We will also mention some electronic mechanisms used as tools to spread information of public European administration. This article will reveal how, despite some claims sent to Ombudsman because of a denial to information by some institutions, the European administration wants to make a transparent management, and also that the common citizen has a regulation to guarantee his right to public administration documents.