On 4 February 2025, the European Court of Human Rights notified Access to Information Programme that it has received their amicus curiae brief on a pending case concerning a violation of Art. 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (freedom of expression and the right to receive and impart information), prepared in collaboration with Citizen Network Watchdog Poland.
The case in question concerns an application submitted in 2023 by the non-governmental organization Vuliwatch against Greece in relation to a refusal to provide access to information of public interest. Vuliwatch is a Greek NGO dedicated to promoting the rules and principles of parliamentary democracy, the work mechanisms of the Greek parliament and the European Parliament, as well as basic democratic values, such as accountability, transparency and communication between citizens and the authorities, at both national and international level. The information requested in the case concerned a contract for the creation of Covid-19 information materials, concluded between a private company and the Secretariat General of Communication and Information under the Greek government.
The contract did not follow the standard public procurement procedures, as a special exception to these procedures was applied in view of the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the pandemic. The request for information focused on documents related to the contract, the offer, and the achieved results. The requested information was refused on the grounds of protecting trade secrets.
The amicus curiae brief highlights the development and significance of the right of access to public information at both international and national level. It emphasizes the growing importance of access to information and of transparency in the expenditure of public funds and in decision-making during the course of the pandemic. We outlined the standards, according to which we believe requests for access to information related to the expenditure of public funds should be processed, with an emphasis on the need for a narrow interpretation of the term "trade secret."