March 27, 2020 / By mobanmarket
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Green groups take Council and Commission to court over access to documents and biofuel policy.
European Union member states and the European Commission are being sued for “failure” to live up to EU transparency rules.
Client Earth, a group of environmental lawyers, claimed that lack of transparency “is becoming endemic among EU institutions” when it announced today (20 September) that it was taking both the Council of Ministers and the Commission to the EU’s General Court in two separate cases.
Commission officials have rejected the charge and claimed that the Commission is one of the most open organisations in the world.
Client Earth’s first case concerns plans to revise the EU’s 2002 access-to-documents law, which gives citizens the right to see internal EU documents. Client Earth has decided to sue the Council over alleged failure to disclose its in-house legal opinion about the review of the 2002 rules.
The group also contends that draft proposals, published by the Commission in 2008, will damage transparency by restricting the type of documents that can be requested through this law.
In a statement setting out its action, Anais Berthier of Client Earth said: “It is ironic and unsettling that the Council is considering restricting a citizen’s access to information while, at the same time that it entertains these restrictions, it is withholding the very information upon which it will base that decision.”
“If the Commission’s proposals are allowed to progress unchallenged, the ramifications for freedom of information will be far-reaching,” she said.
A spokesman for the Belgian government, which holds the rotating presidency of the Council of Ministers, did not respond immediately to requests for comment. But a spokesman for Maroš Šefčovič, the European commission for administration, insisted that transparency would not be weakened.
“The Commission completely rejects any notion that its proposal would lead to less transparency. It has suggested a clearer legal definition of documents with a view to generating greater legal certainty for citizens. At the same time, the Commission is also suggesting to make it a legal obligation to pro-actively disclose documents relating to the legislative process,” the spokesman said.
In a separate move, the Commission is being sued by Client Earth for so-called “attempts to manipulate the science guiding European biofuels policy”. The lawsuit, backed by three other environmental groups, is the second legal challenge on EU biofuel policy from the same group.
In March, Client Earth and the three green groups (Transport and Environment, the European Environmental Bureau and BirdLife International) announced that they were suing the Commission for not releasing important documents in line with transparency rules.
Today’s case centres on a Commission-funded study that showed biofuel in a positive light, but was subsequently shown to be based on misleading assumptions chosen by the Commission.
The study by the International Food Policy Research Group (IFPRI), published in April, showed that EU biofuel policy would reduce carbon emissions. But the conclusions unravelled when they were shown to be based on flawed assumptions, which had been inserted at the behest of the Commission’s energy department – going against a decision reached by all Commission departments. (See “Commission fails to blend biofuel with policy” EuropeanVoice.com, 8 July).
Client Earth is demanding to see the messages between officials on the decision to change this important assumption – a request it says that the Commission has denied.
“Our efforts to understand and influence EU biofuel policy have been repeatedly hampered by attempts to restrict access to documents. The Commission is running an opaque operation,” said Tim Grabiel, a senior lawyer at Client Earth.
A spokeswoman for Günther Oettinger, the European commissioner for energy, said she was not aware of the specifics of this case, but added: “We are one of the most transparent bodies in the whole world…We have put thousands of documents on the website, including emails from experts [officials]. What more can we do?”
Šefčovič’s spokesman said that Client Earth had gone to court before the Commission had taken a final decision on the access request. He said: “The allegation that the Commission completely rejected the application for access is unfounded as at least 80% of the documents requested have been fully disclosed.”
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