Le droit d’accès aux documents : en quête d’un nouveau droit fondamental dans l’Union européenne

The principle of transparency is a multifaceted notion. The most salient of its components is the right of access to documents. This right can be compared to the principles of open government and good administration, with which it is closely related. Historically, the roots of access to documents lie in the constitutional traditions common to the Member States. The regulations implemented over time within the EU, which were designed to grant access to the documents held by the institutions, were all modelled on existing national standards. Atypically, the development of the right of access is built around a peculiar phenomenon: while this right made its debut on the legal stage through the principle nof transparency, it gradually became a subjective self-standing right. As the right of access to documents becomes an autonomous concept it has a further effect; the right of access to documents henceforth becomes part of the attributes of the citizen of the European Union. This leads to a narrow interpretation of the exceptions to the rights of access, conforming to the rule the greatest access possible to documents. The access to documents generates rights and obligations; the beneficiaries (creditors) have been numerous, but at the same time there has been an increase in the number of actors subject to the right of access (debtors). We are progressing to a new fundamental right.