From the Network of Councils and Commissioners we thank the organizers of this Congress for their work in the defense of transparency and in the formation of a demanding and free citizenship that claims to know, know, understand. You are therefore an ally in giving a new impetus to the culture of transparency. Likewise, you play a significant role in the consolidation and dissemination of the technical legal criteria that emanate from the doctrine established during all these years of work.

Events of this magnitude contribute to the institutional consolidation, both of the Administration itself, since its structures are at the service of transparency, and of the construction of the model of independent control authorities.

The three previous institutional declarations - Cadiz, Malaga and UNED - essentially contained two requests to governments, public authorities and political decision-makers: the demand for an intense and determined impulse to the real and effective implementation of transparency within the scope of our public administrations and institutions and the request for a sufficient allocation of resources to the Councils and Commissioners so that they can exercise their competences fully.

It is clear that, in recent times, both the State Government and the autonomous governments have deployed measures of transparency and public information.

Thus, for example, the presence of transparency and the right to public information in the Fourth Action Plan of Open Government of the Spanish State or the various reforms and modifications in progress of several regional transparency laws regarding the active publicity of aid derived from the Next Generation Funds of the European Union. In the area of the Councils and guarantor institutions there have also been changes, many of them significant.

In 2021, in addition to the continuity in the processing of some important normative initiatives such as the reform of the Transparency and Good Governance Law of the Valencian Community - which incorporates an important institutional modification of the Transparency Council - there has been the renewal of the Directorate of the Transparency Council of Andalusia and the Presidency of the Basque Commission on Access to Information.

In the last months of 2020 there was the renewal of the Presidency of the Council of Transparency and Good Government of the State and of the Council of Transparency of the Region of Murcia, as well as the appointment of the Council of Transparency and Participation of the Community of Madrid.

It is true, however, that, together with the measures relating to the organisation and continuity of the institutions - which, of course, deserve a positive assessment - it is also necessary to tackle other issues and substantial aspects.

The Councils and Commissioners need, each with different intensity, resources to exercise our guarantee functions and to be able to defend the position before the courts against very consolidated administrations. This endowment would support our work to consolidate transparency and advance the right of citizens to know the functioning of public institutions.

Our main function is to find, based on legal considerations and criteria, the always difficult balance between the demands of public management, aimed at responding quickly and efficiently to the needs of society, and the right of citizens to know the details of administrative action and the reasons that justify it.

In this sense, insofar as it helps to delineate spaces and define solutions for synthesis between the needs of administrative action and the irrevocable respect for citizens' rights, there is no doubt that the work of the guarantor bodies constitutes a substantial activity for the progress of transparency and access to information.

This work of synthesis and balance - that is, of weighting conflicting interests - that we carry out by the Councils and Commissioners has also acquired a special meaning at a time like the present, in which we are still immersed in the pandemic derived from COVID-19.

This pandemic has brought with it a series of decisions that must be explained and made transparent as much as possible in order to be fully accepted by the citizens.

Society demands from the public authorities, with increasing insistence, the provision of truthful and complete information on the progress of the pandemic. This growing demand for information puts at risk two legal assets to protect: on the one hand, the effectiveness of the actions of public administrations in cases of risk to public health, which requires special and extraordinary precautions and precautions; on the other, the pressing right of citizens to be informed of the management of the pandemic and the duty to account for public action in a situation as relevant as this.

This tension between the efficient management of the health crisis and the provision of information of general interest must be compensated, finding the balance between the right of citizens to know and control public action against the pandemic, and the need for the administration to act swiftly and efficiently in the adoption of the necessary measures for its containment. And in determining the difficult balance between the two, the Councils and Transparency Commissioners are called to play - and we have played - a leading role.

In fact, throughout this period of pandemic, the guarantor agencies and institutions around the world, through the organizations that bring them together, have made numerous statements and statements that insist on two aspects that, in our opinion, are transcendent in the activity we carry out.

Firstly, on the essential importance of guaranteeing the exercise of the right to information without ignoring the needs for efficiency and flexibility of the administrations responsible for combating the pandemic and its consequences and, secondly, on the crucial role that guarantee institutions can play in achieving this objective.

Likewise, in the most academic part of this Congress, the heads of the guarantor bodies have had the opportunity to summarize some of the decisions related to information linked to Covid 19 and the administration of the health crisis that we have adopted in this time of pandemic.

In this regard, it is important to highlight the work of the Transparency Councils and Commissioners during the pandemic, but also before and after it.

We have been adopting, since the beginning of our activity, resolutions and agreements that harmonize opposing interests and resolve the legal conflicts aroused between the management needs of the organs and entities subject to their jurisdiction and the right of citizens and citizens to be informed. Our resolutions have shown that it is possible to open spaces of transparency in sectors of activity traditionally closed and unaffected to information deployments, making visible some of the channels and paths through which, within the scope of our legal system, it is possible to guarantee informed knowledge of citizenship and advance in accountability.

The collection of resolutions and decisions of the Councils and Commissioners constitutes the best proof in this regard and makes up a corpus of legal doctrine studied by the specialists of both the university media and civil society, which we invite to consult all the participants of this 6th Transparency Congress.

The Councils and Commissioners of Transparency of the Spanish State play an essential role in the interpretation and practical application and in the function of guaranteeing citizens' rights.

It is therefore necessary to assess the importance of the role of the guarantor bodies for the implementation of transparency and accountability in our public administrations and institutions and for the advancement of the right of access to public information in all sectors of our society.

An affirmation of our work before the authorities and bodies responsible for managing active publicity and citizens’ access to information at all territorial levels and a specific awareness to the officials and employees ascribed to its need and importance is desirable. It is also appropriate to provide adequate human and material resources to enable us to carry out our functions fully.

This has an undoubted positive effect on increasing the transparency of public administrations and on the security of their management.

On the other hand, one aspect that must be explored lies in the implementation of arbitration or mediation tools in our management, instruments that are valuable and effective for the resolution of conflicts between parties and that lighten, in part, our enormous workload.

In addition, we need the help of all actors in the transparency ecosystem to implement all kinds of actions that strengthen the role of women in the transparency system, since there is a significant gender imbalance in the presentation of claims and complaints. We must work on the full participation of women in transparency processes, a tool that undoubtedly promotes equality.

Therefore, the Network of Councils and Transparency Commissioners of the Spanish State, through this public statement made in Alicante within the framework of the 6th International Transparency Congress, request from the Governments and Authorities of all areas of Administration, national, regional or local political representatives and all political organizations and forces, as well as the scientific community, explicit support to the guarantor bodies to continue advancing the culture of transparency and access to public information, in accordance with the new scenario and the new requirements.

We trust that this request, and the declaration containing it, will deserve the approval and support of the organizers of the 6th International Transparency Congress and of the personalities, associations and civil organizations active in the field of transparency and access to information that participate in it.

Thank you very much to everyone for the attention you have given to this statement and for your support for the requests, considerations and demands contained therein.

Alicante, on September 28, 2021.