The Group of States against Corruption of the Council of Europe (GRECO) today expressed concern about the restrictive access to public information in European states.
In its annual report for 2022, GRECO recalls the role that access to information plays in ensuring public transparency and in facilitating the pursuit of corrupt behaviour. It regrets that in some countries, governments are still accorded a broad margin of discretion for determining what is in the public domain and whether to exclude certain documents from free access.
“Government entities are often reluctant to disclose information and prefer to apply exceptions enabling them to withhold all or parts of information requested. In addition, the application of laws on freedom of access to information is too often inconsistent across government entities, which shows the need for training to create a common understanding and application of national freedom of information laws,” said the anti-corruption body.
GRECO’s president Marin Mrčela said: “Governments should guarantee the overall principle of transparency of public documents in practice. Any exception to the rule of public disclosure should be limited to a minimum and be thoroughly justified. When it comes specifically to public procurement, public scrutiny and access to official documents are key to effectively preventing corruption”.
In its evaluation reports, GRECO reminded countries that they should apply the principles of the Committee of Ministers recommendation on access to official documents and the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents, which require that any limitation to the right of access to official documents must be necessary in a democratic society, proportionate, and only applied if there is not an overriding interest in disclosure.
In its annual report, GRECO recalls that in its 5th evaluation round – focusing on the prevention of corruption and the promotion of integrity among central governments and law enforcement – it has identified a number of shortcomings concerning access to information in the law-making process.
Public consultation timeframes are often not respected, which hinders the consultation process in producing meaningful contributions and influencing the legislative process.
GRECO welcomes states’ progress in implementing its recommendations to prevent corruption and promote integrity but underlines the need to strengthen the level of compliance.
By the end of 2022, slightly less than half of GRECO’s recommendations on central governments’ top officials and just under two thirds of those concerning the police had been implemented, either fully or partly.
States continued to make progress in implementing recommendations from GRECO´s 4th evaluation round concerning MPs, judges and prosecutors: Half of those recommendations (49.5%) had been fully implemented at the end of 2022, up from 45% the previous year. States had partly implemented a third of the outstanding recommendations, while 17% remained not implemented.
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