OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN DATA PROTECTION SUPERVISOR on the Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents.
The aforementioned proposal was sent by the Commission to the EDPS for consultation and was received by the EDPS on 15 May 2008. The aim of the proposal is to make a number of substantive changes to Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents.
The attention of the EDPS has in particular been triggered by the fact that the proposal contains a provision dealing with the delicate relation between access to documents and the rights to privacy and to the protection of personal data, the proposed Article 4(5). This opinion supports the reasons behind replacing the present Article 4(1)(b) by a new provision to some extent, but does not support the provision itself.
This provision is criticised for the following reasons:
The EDPS proposes an exception to public access to personal data. In this regard, personal data shall not be disclosed, if such disclosure would harm the privacy or the integrity of the person concerned. The EDPS also outlines situations in which such harm does not arise. Nevertheless, personal data shall be disclosed if an overriding public interest requires disclosure. In those cases, the institution or body shall have to specify the public interest. It shall give reasons why in the specific case the public interest outweighs the interests of the person concerned. Moreover, where an institution or body refuses access to a document, it shall consider whether partial access to this document is possible.
The opinion identifies several other points where clarifications are needed of the public access regulation. These clarifications can be given by introducing recitals or possibly legislative provisions on the following subjects: