§ Lord Lester of Herne Hillasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will instruct their representatives in the European Convention on a Constitution for Europe to support the proposals made by the Swedish Minister for International and Economic Affairs and Financial Markets and the Swedish Government Representative in the European Convention, as set out in their letter to the Financial Times published on 9 April, for the treaty to lay down legally binding roles of good administration within the European Union institutions; to protect the right to freedom of expression of all European Union officials; and to improve the public's access to documents in all European Union institutions and bodies. [HL2531]
§ The Minister for Trade (Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean)The UK Government strongly support the principle of good administration. We are working closely in the convention with other governments, including Sweden, to ensure that appropriate guidelines are placed in the new draft treaty. As a general principle the UK supports the right to freedom of expression of all European citizens. The Government have long been an advocate of greater openness in the EU institutions. This was a key theme of the UK presidencies in 1992 and 1998. Making it easier to gain access to non-sensitive documents is crucial to this. Draft Treaty Article 36 on access to documents extends the access regime to bodies established by the institutions, and the UK has supported this.