Fundación Ideas para el progreso

As they have published some pieces in recent days, the government is finalizing the draft of the Law of Transparency and Access of Citizens to Information, which may be adopted at the first Council of Ministers of the new political course, which will be held on Monday, August 23rd, to meet later in the parliamentary process.

The new standard will seek to realize the "right to know" of citizens, guaranteeing and facilitating their access to all information that is produced or acquired by public authorities in carrying out their duties and in their possession. The information gathered by the press suggests, moreover, that it is not just documents, but the information itself, regardless of their medium.

The citizen’s application must be made to the corresponding authority in each case, which would be obliged to respond within 30 days- extendable for another 30 on the basis of volume or complexity of the requested data-, with a resolution indicating the citizen the process to be followed to obtain the required information.

With the new legislation, the Spanish government will try to take one more step in the implementation of Open Government, a concept which IDEAS has been working consistently and is based on two basic principles: transparency and citizen participation. The opening of governmental information is closely related to the democratic quality of the states aside from being a fundamental right under international treaties.