September 28 is the International Freedom of Information Day.
A good occasion to remind the new majority in the Federal German Parliament that the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Offcial Documents (Tromsoe Convention) entered into force in December 2020, but not in the Federal Republic of Germany, a country which has been a member of the Council of Europe for 70 years now. Nevertheless the past Federal Government saw no need to acceed to this first international treaty on freedom of information without convincing reasons. The accession to the Tromsoe Convention should be a non-contentious item on the agenda of the new coalition government to be negotiated in the coming weeks. Germany can no longer afford to lag behind the European standards with regard to freedom of information. The financial burden caused by such a step would be negligeable but the benefit for transparency would be significant. Especially the States (Länder) of Bavaria, Saxony and Lower Saxony without freedom of information laws would be prompted to adapt the relationship between citizens and the government to international standards.
Alexander Dix