§ Sir Alastair GoodladTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will make a statement on access to information about EU aid projects. [38439]
§ Clare ShortThe Commission and the Council are committed to the principle of allowing the public the widest possible access to documents held by the Commission and Council. Details on how to access information are contained in the Code of Conduct concerning public access to Commission and Council documents. This covers all types of information about a project, but does contain a list of exceptions—documents considered commercially or politically sensitive do not need to be released. This can include some aid documentation such as aid strategy agreements with third countries and project financing proposals put to the Management Committees (whose dealings are confidential).
All commercial tenders (whether restricted or open) have to be published in the Official Journal which is available on the Internet: by this means a lot of information about aid projects is put into the public domain. The Commission is generally regarded as getting better at improving its efforts to provide information in this area too. However, although the principles on releasing information are the same across all the external relations Directorates General (DG) each can interpret them differently. This can cause confusion, but the establishment of the Common Services Directorate 634W (SCOOP) should help to standardise procedures and increase transparency. There are also designated information officers in each DG for the public to contact.