Access to information is fundamental for an environmental policy. In the former communist countries, this right needs yet to be achieved.

ABSTRACT: In the ex-communist countries, citizens lack the possibility of having access to information on fundamental themes such as the environment and the public administration. Overcoming the administrative secret is instead necessary to lay the foundations of the democratization "of the structures and of society". The text analyses the situation in various Western countries, from the U.S. to Italy, and underlines the importance of the creation of efficient "databases". A campaign for freedom of information in East European countries will call for an "extraordinary" effort.

(IL QUOTIDIANO RADICALE, 26 November 1993)

The acknowledgment of citizens' right to have access to information on the environment, consumers and public administration is the basis of a society of free, equal and mutually supporting individuals. By overcoming the administrative secret - the ancient secret of the prince, i.e. the privilege of hiding oneself to the eyes of the subjects - lays the foundation for an effective democratization of the structures and of society. Only thus is it possible to hope for informed and therefore possibly rational choices.

For the countries of the ex communist bloc, the recognition of this right would have the effects of a great innovation and would be also a guarantee for the future, making the decisions of the bureaucracies transparent and controllable. At the same time, it is a factor of modernization and efficiency of the administration. The importance of the right to information for the development of environmental policies and for a responsible intervention of the citizens and of the movements for the control of pollution should not be underestimated.

From this point of view, the possibility of having access to the data held by the public administrations would greatly facilitate the campaigns on energy and on the Danube. The right to information is fully recognized in the United States (Freedom of Information Act) and is recognized, at varying degrees, also by the other Western countries; the European Community has issued a directive in relation to this matter. In Italy, a campaign has been carried our in the past years by the Amici della Terra (Friends of the Earth, transl.) obtaining important results: in 1986 the right to information by law on the environment was fully recognized in 1986; in the following years more general innovations have been introduced in the administrative procedures and in the regulations of the local governments. The experience of all the countries that have a legislation on the matter has also stressed the need to carry out effective actions for the creation of adequate databases, for their validation and diffusion, with positi

ve effects on the public structures in general and on the investments themselves. Starting a campaign for freedom of information in East European countries, where the tradition of secrecy and the absence of democracy are deep-seated, will call for an exceptional deployment of human and material resources.