Europe: Spain must be transparent. Power is information.

On September 27, Spain ratified the Convention on Access to Public Documents, adopted by the Council of Europe on June 18, 2009, in Tromsø. On November 23, 2021, a representative of Spain signed this Convention in Strasbourg. On Monday, October 23, this document was published in the Official State Bulletin (BOE) in the section on general provisions. In addition to Spain, the Convention has been signed by 14 countries, including Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Iceland, Lithuania, Montenegro, Norway, the Republic of Moldova, Sweden, and Ukraine. In Spain, a Group of Experts on Access to Public Documents will be established, which will meet at least once a year to monitor the implementation of the Convention among the parties.

The main priorities of this Convention in Spain

The focus is on strengthening public oversight and the right to access information from public administrations. Five priorities have been established. The first of these is the strengthening of civil society, which has played an important role in the development of transparency at the national level. The goal is to increase resources for promoting transparency in society and ensuring that citizens are informed. This is also related to the fact that "Europe sets limits for the Spanish government and grants citizens the freedom to request information about public authorities at any time," as noted by the lawyers interviewed by elcierredigital.com. This is part of Europe's demand that governments do not abuse state secrecy.

Another one of the five priorities is the selfless publication of open data to combat corruption and achieve sustainable development goals. This priority is aimed at the active and public dissemination of information accessible to anyone.

The third priority is the recognition of the fundamental right to access information, which is closely related to Article 20 of the Constitution, where the right to freedom of expression is enshrined. This fundamental right implies the ability of every individual to request and receive reliable information held by public authorities without additional requirements and conditions set by current legislation. The application of this Convention will seek to achieve a balance between data protection and ensuring citizens' access to information. The same sources close to the matter argue that the problem lies in the fact that "data protection is often used as an excuse to deny access to information, even when it concerns public officials in high positions performing public functions using state resources. This creates a problem regarding transparency."

And finally, an amendment will be made to the Transparency Law. Currently, this is already one of the goals of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Action Plan. It is worth noting that Spain has been selected as a member of the executive committee and will serve as the chair of the alliance for one year, starting from October 1, 2024. This alliance includes 75 member states. Under this priority, information that is auxiliary or internal will be excluded, the Transparency Council will be strengthened with the ability to impose sanctions, make decisions, and conduct audits, and there will be efforts to ensure that the law applies to all information held by all public bodies. The scope of the law will also be expanded to cover all branches of government, including the judiciary and the legislature.