Transparency
1. The Commission shall make available to citizens the legislative proposals it submits to the European Parliament and/or the Council, accompanied by the impact assessments and the Regulatory Scrutiny Board opinions, as well as information on expert groups and committees, public consultations and beneficiaries of Union funds.
2. The Commission shall provide in its register of documents the agendas of Commission meetings, the tentative agendas for forthcoming meetings, the approved ordinary minutes of the Commission meetings and the acts published in the Official Journal of the European Union .
Transparency Register
In order to ensure the transparency of its relations with interest representatives, the Commission shall observe the rules and principles of the public transparency register agreed with the other institutions ( 22 ) .
Public access to Commission documents
1. In accordance with Article 15(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and Article 42 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, any citizen of the European Union, and any natural or legal person residing or having its registered office in a Member State, has a right of access to Commission documents, regardless of the medium. This access is subject to the conditions laid down in Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 ( 23 ) .
2. The Commission’s Detailed rules for the application of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents adopted on the basis of Article 15(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and Article 18(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, and as set out in the Annex to these Rules of Procedure, shall apply.
Document management
1. Document management shall be carried out in an efficient manner to enable the Commission to trace its actions at any time in order to comply, among other things, with its legal obligations, in particular as regards data protection, public access to documents and the security of information.
2. The Commission services shall comply with the internal rules on registration, filing, storage and transfer of documents to the Historical Archives.
Security and confidentiality
1. Without prejudice to Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council, the Members of the Commission and all Commission staff shall have a general obligation to respect the confidentiality of the discussions, information and documents that come to their attention ( 24 ) .
2. Within the Commission, persons, assets and information shall be afforded appropriate levels of protection commensurate with identified risks ( 25 ) . Classified European Union information shall also be given appropriate protection ( 26 ) .
3. Classified information at the level of CONFIDENTIEL UE/EU CONFIDENTIAL or higher can only be accessed by staff who have obtained a security clearance from the national authorities of their country of origin.
Protection of personal data
1. Personal data shall be processed by the Commission in accordance with Article 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 27 ) as well as other European Union rules on data protection ( 28 ) .
2. The Data Protection Officer of the Commission, acting independently, shall ensure that the Union rules on data protection are applied within the Commission.
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
