The Revision of Regulation 1049/2001: Public Access Deadlocked for a Decade

Regulation 1049/2001 on access to Commission, European Parliament and Council documents was due to be revised a decade ago. The revision process started with a proposal by the Commission in 2008. However, the negative response of the European Parliament signalled what came to be deadlocked process. This chapter aims to unearth the reasons underlying this deadlock by comparing the proposal of the Commission and the resolution adopted by the European Parliament in response to it. The resulting differences in both institutions’ positions are going to be used to clarify their underlying motives for rejecting each other’s proposals. The ultimate objective of this chapter is thus to shed light on the Commission and the European Parliament’s attitudes towards transparency and the right to public access to documents within the European Union