The European Ombudsman, Nikiforos Diamandouros, has called on the President of the European Convention, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, to give access to the agendas and minutes of the Praesidium.

Brief news:
In his reaction to a complaint from the Director of the European Citizen Action Service (ECAS) whose request for access to the documents was refused, the Ombudsman agreed with the Convention President that "disclosure of the agendas and minutes before the Convention completes its work would seriously undermine the Convention's decision-making process". However, Mr Diamandouros insists that "it seems difficult to argue that the Convention's decision-making process could any longer be undermined once it has reached the end of its work".

The Secretary General of the Convention has already told the Ombudsman that "there is no reason why the documents concerned should not be made public at that stage". The Ombudsman states that it would be "in accordance with the principles of good administration for the Convention to make the appropriate arrangements as soon as possible to ensure such access".

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