2023-10-05 10:06:08
After years of struggle, the government presented the finished draft for reforming official secrecy on Thursday. This should be history by 2025; according to the plans, the new Freedom of Information Act will take its place. This is intended to ensure that the federal government, states and municipalities have to answer inquiries from citizens and provide them with information. A two-thirds majority is required to implement the plans.
The main points the government is demanding:
- Official secrecy in its current form will be abolished after 100 years.
- In the future, everyone will have a constitutionally guaranteed right of access to information. This applies to information that is already available; for example, officials cannot be commissioned to carry out research.
- “Information of general interest” (e.g. areas of activity, business classifications, official gazettes, studies, etc.) must be proactively recorded by government bodies in an information register www.data.gv.at to be published. This applies to all administrative bodies.
- Municipalities and community associations with a population of up to 5,000 residents are exempt from this proactive publication requirement. You can of course publish such information voluntarily.
- The passive right to information also applies to smaller communities: every citizen can request information from the community.
Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler (Greens) and Constitutional Minister Karoline Edtstadler (ÖVP) presented the government proposal for the new Freedom of Information Act on Thursday. In a press release, the government described the project as a “historic paradigm shift” that would make “transparency the rule and secrecy the exception.”
The new law is intended to introduce a constitutionally guaranteed fundamental right of access to information. Instead of official secrecy, there is a “fundamental right to information” for everyone, which can also be enforced in administrative courts and the Constitutional Court if necessary.
The obligation to provide information affects the administrative bodies of the federal and state governments as well as all municipalities – including the bodies entrusted with the business of the federal administration and the state administration. Information must also be provided by non-sovereign foundations, funds, institutions and companies that are subject to the control of the Court of Auditors or a state audit office. However, the competitiveness of companies must not be impaired.
The bodies required to provide information have four weeks from the time the application is submitted to provide information, although this period can be extended by a further four weeks. When providing information, personal rights such as the right to data protection must be taken into account.
Information of general interest must also be proactively published by government bodies in the future. These should be made publicly available on a website (the central information register). Municipalities and community associations with a population of up to 5,000 are exempt from the proactive publication requirement. In addition, this obligation also applies to the National Council and the Federal Council, as well as the Court of Auditors and the Ombudsman, as well as to the organs of ordinary jurisdiction, the administrative courts, the Administrative Court and the Constitutional Court.
Information that is subject to secrecy in the interests of national security does not need to be published proactively; the same applies to such information relating to comprehensive national defense or public order and security.
For implementation, a two-thirds majority in the National Council as well as qualified consent from the Federal Council is required – and thus the consent of the SPÖ or FPÖ. The package was presented to the parliamentary groups in the morning; How the parliamentary groups decide is still unclear. In the past, the SPÖ had repeatedly spoken out in favor of implementing such a freedom of information law, but approval from the FPÖ is considered rather uncertain. The law should be passed as quickly as possible and, according to government plans, the new provisions should come into force in 2025. In any case, there should be a period of one and a half years between the parliamentary decision and its entry into force so that the relevant authorities can prepare adequately.
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