Access to information

A self-assessment tool to evaluate and improve municipalities' access to information rules

The European population is increasingly living in urban areas, which means city governments also have increased powers and responsibilities, making transparency and accountability at the city level as important as it is at national level. Local governments take decisions that affect citizens in their daily lives, and citizens in turn demand greater levels of participation, for which they need better access to information.

The Access to Information toolkit has been especially designed for local government bodies (municipal, provincial, and regional authorities) to evaluate their transparency frameworks. More specifically, this toolkit:

  •       Provides municipalities with knowledge on the right of access to information.
  •       Evaluates whether the access to information rules are in line with international standards.
  •       Evaluates the implementation of the right of access to information by municipalities.
  •       Provides a bespoke set of recommendations for each municipality to improve: Access to Information Rules; Proactive Publication Rules; Implementation of the right to information; and Citizens’ awareness on the right to information.

 

SELF ASSESMENT QUESTIONNAIRE

This digital tool is an online survey that evaluates whether the access to information rules of municipalities are in line with international transparency standards. It also evaluates the implementation of this right by municipalities.

The questionnaire has four main sections:

  1.       Access to Information Legal Framework: scope, requesting procedures, requesters, exceptions, appealing system and more;
  2.       Proactive Publication rules;
  3.       Implementation and Compliance of the right of Access to Information, including allocated resources by municipalities and sanctions in place;
  4.       Measurement of levels of Citizens’ Awareness on their right of access to information.

Once the questionnaire is completed, the system generates a set of bespoke recommendations based on the answers provided by the municipality. By following the set of recommendations generated by the tool, municipalities will improve:

  •         Access to Information rules
  •         Proactive Publication rules
  •         Implementation of the right of access to information
  •         Citizens’ awareness on their right of access
  •         Compliance with international standards

TAKE THE ACCESS TO INFORMATION SURVEY

ACCESS TO INFORMATION GUIDELINES & GLOSSARY

The Access to Information Guidelines have been elaborated to provide municipalities and public officials with the basic knowledge on the right of access to information. It is important to read the Guidelines before taking the self-assessment questionnaire to ensure a good understanding of access to information international standards.

The Guidelines include chapters on the following topics:

  •         What is the right of access to information?
  •         Basic components of the right: Definition of information, requesters, procedures, timeframes, responses, and more.
  •         Exceptions
  •         Proactive publication
  •         Compliance statistics

DOWNLOAD THE ACCESS TO INFORMATION GUIDELINES

The toolkit also includes a Glossary with all the key terms the municipality should know in order to fill in the survey.

DOWNLOAD THE ACCESS TO INFORMATION GLOSSARY

The toolkit is available, at the moment, in four languages: English, Greek, Italian and Spanish.

For more information, please contact:

Access Info Europe: info@access-info.org |+34 913 656 558 | +34 637 226 609

 

PARTICIPATING CITIES