Madrid City Government adopts comprehensive package of open government measures
Madrid City Government, which is a member of the Open Government PartnershipThe Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a multi-stakeholder initiative focused on improving government transparency, ensuring opportunities for citizen participation in public matters, and strengthen... More Sub-NationalRecognizing that much of what impacts people’s daily lives occurs at the local level, many OGP countries are working to open up lower levels of government by creating commitments focused on subnatio... Pilot scheme, in July adopted a TransparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More Ordinance that shows just how much can be achieved where there is a serious political commitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action... to greater transparency.
On 27 July 2016, the City Council approved one of the most progressive sub-national transparency regimes in Europe, a new legal framework which encompasses proactive publication on a broad scale, the right to request information, including anonymous requests, and a strong lobby regulationGovernment reformers are developing regulations that enshrine values of transparency, participation, and accountability in government practices. Technical specifications: Act of creating or reforming ... that requires the registration of lobbyists before they meet with public officials.
The new the Madrid Transparency Ordinance, contains a range of accountability and integrity mechanisms, including the requirement that elected deputies publish their diaries and taxPlacing transparency, accountability, and participation at the center of tax policy can ensure that burdens are distributed equitably across society. Technical specifications: Commitments related to c... information, and it sets up a register of gifts of over 50 Euros.
Another important feature of the Ordinance is that in addition to requiring publication of a wide range of data – economic, environmental, human resources, public transport, urban planning, etc. – all information may be reused freely, with no need for licences or prior approval.
This holistic approach to transparency is very much in line with the OGP philosophy, and although the measures taken in Madrid are entirely the result of commitments made by the new city government elected in May 2015, and hence prior to its OGP membership, they will certainly contribute to setting standards across Europe and globally.
That said, the Transparency Ordinance was not easy to secure. One of the huge limitations which had to be overcome was Spain’s national level transparency law (adopted in 2013), which requires that requesters prove their identity, something that has resulted in a complex online identification procedure via the Transparency Portal, requiring a type of digital signature or for the requester to obtain a special code number from the government.
The solution by the Madrid City Government was to permit anonymous requests and then, if the information is already public or no exception applies, it will be provided directly, in a timeframe of 15 working days (shorter than the one month in the national law). Only if there is an exception to be invoked, will requesters need to confirm their identity.
Another challenge was the resistance by various political factions to making the lobby register mandatory. This is an area where civil society organisations, including Access Info Europe, engaged in our own lobbying, meeting with political representatives and promoting best practices. The standards we promoted included the International Lobby Regulation Standards, which were developed by civil society globally in as part of an initiative led by Access Info Europe, Transparency International, Open Knowledge International, and the Sunlight Foundation, and were launched at the OGP Summit in Mexico in October 2015.
In the end the Madrid City Government succeeded in securing passage of the requirement that no meetings may take place with lobbyists who are not registered in the Lobby Register. This is a significant advance and will permit much greater scrutiny of the influences on decision making in Spain’s capital city.