During the meeting, issues of common interest have been addressed and the value of institutional collaboration to advance the right to know in Spain has been highlighted.
The president of the CTBG has conveyed to the president of the Council of State the main challenges facing the public transparency system in Spain and the independent authority responsible for promoting transparency, ensuring compliance with publicity obligations and safeguarding the exercise of the right of access to public information.
Among them, he highlighted the significant and sustained increase in the number of complaints filed with the agency, and the excessive percentage of them presented due to the lack of response of the administration to requests for information (45% of the State level complaints received by the Council are motivated by administrative silence).
Campos also recalled at the meeting that there is an urgent need for legal reform that will allow, among other advances, to extend the obligations of active publicity, which would result in greater public transparency, and provide the Council with sanctioning and coercive powers that guarantee compliance with its resolutions and, therefore, a more effective system of guaranteeing an essential right for citizens and to guarantee good administration.
For its part, Calvo has detailed the transparency actions developed by the Council of State, which obtained a 99.1 compliance in its obligations of active publicity in the last evaluation carried out by the CTBG. In this regard, he explained, improvements have been promoted in the design and content of the institutional web portal to facilitate its accessibility and adapt to the current needs of communication, reinforcing the institutional image, the transparency of the institution and its usefulness for citizens and legal operators.
