Transparency/Articles/en

2021

Spiegel: Each month, the European Commission deletes several thousand emails and texts, and WhatsApp messages are not archived at all. Now, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is, once again, facing uncomfortable questions about allegedly deleted text messages. An expert describes the practices as legally "questionable."

Open Knowledge Foundation Belgium: There has not been an appeals committee to handle requests for Public Access for several years now. The previous government failed to put one in place. An appeals committee must be appointed as soon as possible to adhere to the Royal Decree of April 29, 2008 on the composition and working method of the Committee for access to and reuse of administrative documents (Belgian Official Journal 8 May 2008). This committee must be authorized by Minister Verlinden in consultation with the Digital Agenda. For example, Belgium recently refused – as one of the only European member states – to release its tender figures for the emergency purchases of Covid19 protective equipment, tests and respirators. Nevertheless, everyone is convinced that transparency about spending public funds is a crucial element in creating public support.

Julia Reda: Does copyright infringement negatively affect legal sales? This is a fundamental question with profound implications on the way copyright and copyright enforcement policy should work. In January 2014, the European Commission awarded the Dutch company Ecorys a contract worth €360.000 to conduct a study on the question.