by Kirsten Fiedler, EDRi
It is crucial to know what the European institutions are up to in order to ensure that citizens' fundamental rights are respected. Democracy requires vigilance and vigilance requires access to information. It is precisely for this reason that freedom of information legislation exists. Since the entry in force of Regulation 1049/2001 setting up the EU bodies public registers of documents, Europeans are able to request access to documents from the European institutions. EDRi has frequently been making use of Regulation 1049/2001 to shine light on their activities. Our work on exposing the lack of transparency of the ACTA negotiations or the flaws of the CleanIT project shows just how important access to documents is.