Diritto Pubblico Comparato ed Europeo

Sommario

1. Premessa. – 2. La dialettica: segreto-trasparenza. – 3. Verso il riconoscimento di un generale diritto di accesso nelle istanze nazionali ed internazionali. – 4. Dal soft law allo hard law nella disciplina del diritto di accesso ai documenti. – 5. Il diritto di accesso ai documenti tra le innovazioni introdotte dal Trattato di Amsterdam e dal regolamento 1049/2001. – 6. Diritto di accesso e principio di buona amministrazione.

Abstract

Access to information concerning political and administrative decisions has long been associated with an ideal of democracy. Public access to documents is considered extremely important in ensuring participation and deliberation by citizens and their organizations on issues of public relevance and concern. It constitutes an instrument to assure utmost transparency in the Community to increase confidence in the administration itself, by making the institutions behave in accordance with the precepts of good administration. Post Amsterdam the individual’s right of access is regulated by art. 255 EC and is only applicable to the three institutions that are regular holders of communitarian law-making power. Art. 255 EC constitutes the legal base of regulation 1049/2001 concerning the right of access to documents of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission. Actually the right of access is recognized in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union in art. 42 which is also eferred to in the Preliminary Constitutional Treaty Plan.