Access to documents

Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and the Council of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents recommended that all agencies established by the institutions should apply the principle laid down in this regulation.

Council Regulation (EEC) No 1210/90 establishing the European Environment Agency and the European Environment Information and Observation Network was amended in 2003 to make Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 applicable to the EEA.

On 22 June 2004, the EEA Management Board has adopted implementing rules for the application of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 as well as a decision whereby the Code of Good Administrative Behaviour adopted by the resolution of the European Parliament on 6 September 2001 would apply by analogy to the EEA.

Regulation (EC) No 401/2009 which replaces Council Regulation (EEC) No 1210/90 and its subsequent amendments provides now in its Article 6 that Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 shall apply to documents held by the Agency.

This means that Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 states that members of the public have a right of access to internal, unpublished documents of the Agency subject to the principles, conditions and limits defined in the regulation.

In order to help you to identify the documents that may be of interest to you, the regulation provides for the existence of a register of public documents with direct links to the documents themselves, as far as possible. You can find these documents at the EEA public document register. The public access guide provides you further information on how to get access to EEA documents.

Requests for access to documents shall be made in writing at the following e-mail address: access.to.documents at eea.europa.eu

You can also address your request for documents to the EEA offices:
European Environment Agency
Operational services – Document management

Kongens Nytorv 6
DK-1050 Copenhagen
Denmark