MANS indicators for free access to information
In the process of integration into the European Union countries are frequently not provided with clear guidelines on how to increase transparency and fight corruption, while Bulgaria and Romania represent examples of failure to achieve European standards through the accession process.
There are no generally accepted models of legislative, nor does Aqui Communitaire incorporate important anticorruption regulative. Therefore, progress reports developed by the European Commission (EC) frequently have no clear indicators to assess progress of countries, nor enough strong and specific arguments to be used when advocating for changes.
This paper represents contribution to defining more clear set of indicators for assessing and comparing level of freedom of information among countries in EU accession process and it comprehends draft list of indicators for assessing existing legal norms and their enforcement.
Draft indicators are based on analysis of recommendations from EC progress reports, findings from the Council of Europe and GRECO reports, provisions from the United Nations Convention against Corruption. In order to develop this questionnaire we were using model of legislative A Model Freedom of Information Law developed by Article 19 and Ten principles on the right to know produced by The Justice Initiative and Access Info Europe.
First set of indicators is related to legal norms and it is divided into the following areas: general provisions, restrictions and exceptions to FOI,procedure for submitting requests, fees and manner of access to information, decision upon request, appeals and penalties.
Second set of indicators is focused at enforcement of the legislative. It is separated into the same categories as legislative part, but is related to practical implementation of legal provisions.
The indicators should be ranked by experiences professional, on the basis of experience gained through monitoring implementation of the legislative and statistical data on a large sample. (PDF) download >>>
