DG Disinformation Society? Ombudsman finds “maladministration”

Posted on November 11, 2007 | Filed Under communication technologies 

silence “Seal up your lips, and give no words but mum: The business asketh silent secrecy.” Are these words from Shakespeare’s King Henry VI (ii) part of the real mission statement of the Commission’s DG Information Society?

In an earlier post I mentioned my request for access to certain ERG-documents, which I made more than a year ago in October 2006. I had applied for access to two reports, both of which were - due to my request - subsequently published in part (here and here+here). And I applied for access to a “submission note” (a brief document summarizing a report, to be tabled at an ERG-meeting), and finally for the list of attendance at the relevant ERG-meeting. A simple story, and yet it splits into four seperate issues (and it is not finished yet):

  1. The basic requirements of Regulation (EC) 1049/2001: getting access within the specified time-frame, getting advance information if an extension of the deadline is necessary, and getting detailed reasoning for the extension. The Commission failed on this account - and you can read the details in the Decision of the European Ombudsman on complaint 3697/2006/PB, finding maladministration in DG InfoSoc.
  2. Getting access to the complete reports: the issue is still unresolved (the Commission denies access to data that I believe should be in the public domain; the reason given by the Commission is that the NRAs [!] of Switzerland and Austria requested so); a complaint with the European Ombudsman is pending.
  3. Getting access to the list of attendance of the ERG-meeting: this was flatly rejected by DG Info on account of protecting “personal data privacy and the integrity of the individual” (obviously, DG Info thinks the heads of the NRAs or their substitutes travel to all the lovely places where the ERG meets in a private capacity). I have not followed that up with a complaint, but it is nice to note that just two days ago the Court of First Instance decided the Case T-194/04 Bavarian Lager, coming to the conclusion that the Commission had “erred in law” by rejecting a request to obtain the names of lobbyists that had participated in a meeting with the Commission. The Court stated that “the mere participation of a representative of a collective body in a meeting held with a Community institution does not fall within the sphere of that person’s private life, so that the disclosure of minutes revealing his presence at that meeting cannot constitute an interference with his private life.” If that holds true for business contacts with the Commission, it should be all the more valid for meetings of the Heads of NRAs within ERG.
  4. Getting access to the submission note: this is not an important document, as I found out by receiving it recently (not from the Commission, but from readers of this blog, who also supplied the full reports - thank you for that, anonymous mailers!). But the interesting thing is that the Commission - in a recent letter to the European Ombudsman - contends that it doesn’t even exist! A very interesting viewpoint, given the fact that ERG-documents, even if not published, are widely distributed and by some mysterious coincidence always seem to find their way to the industry, but just not to those who formally ask. Luckily - thanks to you, readers - I was able to mail a copy of the supposedly non-existent document to the Ombudsman for further investigation.

Is all this “silent secrecy” really the best way to act for a Directorate-General that is called “Information Society and Media”?

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One Response to “DG Disinformation Society? Ombudsman finds “maladministration””

  1. News from DG Disinformation Society: maladministration revisited : contentandcarrier on June 27th, 2008 11:56 am

    […] have already reported on a previous case where the EU Ombudsman found there was maladministration in DG Information Society. Now the […]

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