This was the conclusion reached by a panel of the SCAC in a case brought by Dimitar Georgiev (Sofia) against a refusal of the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works (MRDPW).
With a request dated 21 September 2023, Dimitar Georgiev requested information regarding the Project “Water Strategies of Bulgaria for Transition to a Climate-Neutral and Sustainable Society,” funded under the European Union’s LIFE Programme. The following information was requested, in particular:
- A copy of the signed funding contract for the Project, along with the attachments thereto;
- A copy of the signed partnership agreement for the implementation of the Project or an equivalent agreement between MRDPW and the Club “Ekonomika 2000” Association;
- A copy of the approved project proposal, if not included in the attachments under item 1 of this request;
- A copy of the project management organigram, if not included in the attachments under item 1 of this request;
- A copy of the appointment order or equivalent document for the designation of the project management team, if not included in the attachments under item 1 of this request, containing: name and surname, position, department and directorate in MRDPW; position in the project team; responsibilities in the project team;
- The LIFE programme website indicates that the total budget for the project is €2,100,084, with the EU contributing €1,260,048. The difference of €840,035 (eight hundred forty thousand and thirty-five euros) is co-financed by the Project Beneficiaries, namely: MRDPW, the Ministry of Environment and Water, and the Club “Ekonomika 2000” Association. Please provide information, if not included in the attachments under items 1, 2, and/or 3 of this request, on how this co-financing has been split among the above-mentioned Project Beneficiaries, including a document signed by the Beneficiaries where this split is agreed upon as a total amount and by year for each Beneficiary;
- Please provide information on how much of the co-financing for the Project, which is covered by MRDPW, has already been approved in the Ministry’s budget for 2023, and in which MRDPW directorate’s budget has this amount been allocated;
- Please provide copies of the textual and financial Project reports, including the attachments thereto, that have been prepared and approved by the funding programme from the Project’s start date to the date of this request.
- Please provide details of the contact person for the Project, including: name, position, phone number, and email address.
With a decision dated 18 October 2023, the Director of the Legal Directorate at the MRDPW provided a small part of the requested information and refused the information specified in items 1 – 6 and 8 on the grounds that the Club “Ekonomika 2000” Association (beneficiary of the Project) explicitly objected to the provision of the information under these items.
The refusal was appealed with the support of AIP.
With Judgment No. 14893/16 August 2024 of the SCAC, Second Division, panel 38, on administrative case No. 10514/2023, Judge Tatyana Zhilova repealed the refusal and obliged the Director of the Legal Directorate at the MRDPW to provide the requested information.
The court held that since the Club “Ekonomika 2000” Association is a beneficiary of a project funded by the EU, it is obligated to provide access to public information regarding its activities, as it falls under the definition of obliged bodies in Article 3, par. 2, item 2 of the APIA: natural and legal entities are required to provide information regarding their activities funded by the consolidated state budget, EU funds, or funds provided by the EU under projects and programmes. Therefore, the Association is not a third party in the APIA proceedings and does not need to give consent for the disclosure of information related to it, as it is a body obliged under the law, and the provision of access to information cannot be conditioned upon its consent.
The court noted that there is a presumption of an overriding public interest in the requested information, which has not been rebutted by the defendant.
The court judgment is final.
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The publication is part of the project "Legal Help to Strategic Access to Information Cases". This project is funded by the United States Agency for International Development and the German Marshall Fund of the United States. All publications in the frames of the project are funded by the United States Agency for International Development and the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Its contents are the sole responsibility of Access to Information Programme Foundation and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or GMF.