Five things you need to know about FOI-ing to the EU

 

  1. The EU FOI law: The European Union has its own Freedom Of Information (FOI) law, called Regulation 1049/2001 on access to EU documents. It applies to all EU bodies, including the three main institutions (European Parliament, European Commission and Council of the EU), all EU agencies (such as the European Medicines Agencies, EU border agency Frontex, Europol or the European Central Bank), and other EU bodies such as the EU’s military missions. Here you can find a list of all EU bodies the EU FOI law applies to.
  2. Documents vs information: Unlike the majority of national FOI laws in Europe, the EU FOI law is an access to documents law; not an access to information law. This means you can only request documents from EU institutions, not information. 
  3. Timeframes and deadlines: Once you have filed your FOI request, the institution will need to send you a confirmation of registration. From registration on, the institution has 15 working days (so about three weeks) to respond; they can apply a deadline extension of another 15 working days if they need more time to get back to you. Once you have received a response, if it is a partial or total refusal, you have 15 working days to file an appeal. The institution will then need to confirm receipt of your appeal, and will have 15 working days (plus an extension of another 15 working days if needed) to respond to your appeal.
  4. Grounds for refusal: In principle, according to the EU FOI law, “all documents of the institutions should be accessible to the public”. The law however sets out a limited (9) series of exceptions that institutions can apply to this principle if they want to refuse access to a document. These exceptions are listed in Article 4 of the EU FOI law and include reasons such as the need to protect public security, commercial interests, or institutions’ decision making processes.
  5. Appeals: If an institution has refused access to the document you are requesting, you have the right to file an appeal. If your appeal is also refused, you have two options to further challenge this refusal: filing a European Ombudsman complaint, or taking the EU institution to court. Here you can find out more about challenging refusals.