Commission agrees to give public access to Portuguese budget deficit document - Main contents

9 January 2006

Commission agrees to give public access to Portuguese budget deficit document

The European Ombudsman, P. Nikiforos Diamandouros, has welcomed the decision of the European Commission to give public access to a letter concerning the Portuguese excessive deficit procedure. Following the Ombudsman's intervention, the complainant, a Portuguese Member of the European Parliament, received the document from the Commission.
The case

The complainant requested access to a letter that the Portuguese Minister of Finance had sent to the Commission in the context of the excessive deficit procedure. The letter contained information on budgetary measures to be adopted in order to generate additional state revenue. The Commission refused access to this document on the grounds that its disclosure would undermine the protection of the public interest as regards the financial, monetary or economic policy of Portugal. In the Commission's opinion, disclosure would adversely affect the Portuguese government's economic and financial policy because it could jeopardise the government's achievement of those objectives.

The Ombudsman approached the Portuguese authorities who informed him that, in Portugal's current budgetary situation, the letter did not contain elements which could affect Portugal's economic and financial policy. The Ombudsman communicated this information to the Commission, which then agreed to disclose the document in question, thereby satisfying the complainant.
To read the decision, please visit:

http://www.euro-ombudsman.eu.int/decision/en/050116.htm

For information about the case: Marta Hirsch-Ziembinska, Principal Legal Officer, tel. +33 3 88 17 2746
For general press inquiries: Gundi Gadesmann, Press Officer, tel. +32 2 284 2609