Access to documents

The judgment C-761/18 P appealing by Professor Päivi Leino-Sanberg the order of the General Court T-421/17, concerns the refusal of access decided by the European Parliament regarding the dissemination of the content of some trilogues (object themselves of the well-known De Capitani case T-540/15). Thus, the reasoning of the Court allows to make some reflections on the interest of the beneficiaries of the «right of access» to documents, as well the legal consequences of their publication online by a «Third party». Consequently, it leads to argue on the relationship between «administrative transparency» and «right to online access» in the age of digital administration.

This paper deals with the suitability of the generalized civic access to guarantee administrative transparency during the COVID 19 health emergency, considering also the Codacons’ civic access request related to COVID 19 health emergency data.

During the Covid emergency, the importance of the collection of quality public data, their re-elaboration for information purposes and their timely dissemination emerged . This contribution analyzes the judicial actions promoted by Codacons in order to solicit the release of data, and so, in particular, the presidential decrees nos. 2299/2020 and 2346/2020 of the T.A.R. Lazio and n. 01841/2020 of the Council of State.

The referral order under consideration highlights the existing jurisprudential contrast with regard to the relationship between the right of access to documents, referred to in Articles 22 et seq. of the law on administrative procedure, and the means of instruction provided for in articles 210-213 of the Italian Code of Civil Procedure, as well as, with reference to family proceedings, by the combined provisions of Articles 492-bis c.p.c. and 155-sexies disp. att. Code of Civil Procedure.

This paper analyzes the order n. 8501/2019 of Referral to the Plenary Session about the possibility for a subject, even if not direct holder of a concrete interest, to request the viewing of documents belonging to the PA, through the generalized civic access ex art. 5, c. 2, Legislative Decree 33/2013. In the case here analyzed, reference is made to the possibility of using the tool of generalized civic access in public procurement.