Access to documents: opening to the public of the historical archives of the Community and the EAEC

The European Parliament adopted a resolution drafted by Marcelino OREJA ARBURUA (EPP-ED, Spain) and made some amendments to the Commission's proposal. (Please refer to the document dated 18/02/03.) Parliament also stated in the recitals that the exceptions to public right of access provided for in Regulation 1049/2001/EC are exhaustive and apply independently of the place in which documents are kept. Documents selected for keeping in special archives do not constitute a special category of documents in this respect. Parliament went on to call for initiation of the conciliation procedure under the joint declaration of March 1975 if the Council intends to depart from the Parliament's text. It also called on the European Convention to examine the possibility of including all agencies and bodies of the EU within the scope of Article 225 of the Treaty in order to facilitate the application of a constant regime on access to documents and on the historical archives.�