The Spanish Cabinet July 29 has approved and issued a long-awaited draft of an access to information law.
News of the proposed law from the Council of Ministers was announced by the nongovernmental organization Access Info Europe, which received a letter from the Minister of the Presidency, Ramon Jauregui.
An early draft of the legislation leaked last year, but activists have been waiting for months to see if an official proposal would be made. In March, a government official promised news within a month. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.) In September, 2010, transparency groups called the leaked bill inadequate. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.)
The draft law is “a significant improvement on earlier versions, according to an Access Info Europe statement July 29. “There is little chance of the law being adopted during this legislative period, but it raises the stakes for the campaign running up to the 20 November elections,” Access Info Europe said.
In describing the bill, the Madrid-based group said that “the new draft formally considered today by the Council of Ministers has a number of strong points, including that it recognises the right of all persons and applies to all levels of government, including the legislative and judicial branch, and private bodies exercising administrative power.”
“Weaknesses in the draft law include that it does not apply to all information, excluding background information to decision making such as the opinions and reports, and also does not apply at all to archives, registers and statistics, which means that a large amount of information will remain inaccessible to the public,” the group stated.
“Although further improvements are needed, this is the first access to information law of a reasonable quality to be presented to the public in Spain,” commented Victoria Anderica, legal expert at Access Info Europe.
One of the significant failings of the law is that if does not recognize a fundamental right to information, thus falling below international standards, the group said.
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