The European Parliament voted today to strengthen the EU institutions' transparency by broadening citizens' right of access to EU documents. The report concerns the revision of Regulation 1049/2001 on access to documents, which falls short of EP expectations, NGOs requests and European Court of Justice jurisprudence.

Sonia ALFANO (Italia dei Valori, Italy), ALDE spokesperson on the issue in the civil liberties committee, said: "Transparency and access to information and documents are the key to ensure that institutions work for their citizens and not behind closed doors evading democratic and media scrutiny. Transparency is also the key to prevent and fight corruption and the EP report contains important provisions for financial and budgetary transparency providing for the beneficiaries of EU funds and grants to be made public and accessible via a database - a proposal that stems from ALDE amendments."

Anneli JÄÄTTEENMAKI (Suomen Keskusta, Finland), ALDE spokesperson on the dossier in the AFCO committee said: "Europe is facing its biggest crisis since the Second World War. Not only eurozone, but also the whole EU is in danger. Citizens have less and less trust in the European institutions. It is clear that we need to increase transparency in the EU. Without transparency, democracy is impossible. Transparency requires that the decisions are open to public scrutiny. The report takes small but important steps forward in transparency. It also clarifies the rules".

"The Commission proposal from 2008 is in contradiction with the Treaty. It is unacceptable that the EC has not presented a new proposal. It is also unfortunate that the EPP does not agree with the citizens' fundamental rights for access to documents. In a democracy the citizens simply have the right to know," she concluded.