Brussels - A European watchdog on Thursday accused the European Union's executive arm in Brussels of withholding crucial information from the bloc's citizens by failing to create a comprehensive register of the documents it produces and receives.

"The European Parliament and the (European) Council have set up satisfactory registers. I, therefore, see no reason why the
(European) Commission should not be able to do so," said European Ombudsman Nikiforos Diamandouros.

The ombudsman is an official elected by the European Parliament to investigate claims of abuse by EU bodies. He makes non-binding recommendations based on complaints against those institutions.

Diamandouros was acting on a 2006 complaint from Statewatch, a British pressure group, which argued that the commission only publishes legal texts and reports that have already been adopted, thereby excluding the vast majority of documents, including revisions to the final texts.

The ombudsman stated in his criticisms that the commission had already had "enough time since 2002 to establish its register."

He also noted that the commission's proposed "narrower definition" of what a document is would lead to "fewer rather than more EU documents being accessible to the public."

The commission responded Thursday that while it was committed to becoming more open to the public, it was not legally bound to create such a register.

Moreover, it is still working on a precise definition of which documents should or should not be made available.

Otherwise, "we could be talking about having on the register any email sent by you inviting us for a coffee," said Mark English, a commission spokesman.

English also stressed that the commission's planned definition of what constitutes a "document" would be "much wider" than the one typically used by national governments.

The ombudsman's criticisms were welcomed by Statewatch.

"Access to documents is the lifeblood of a democracy. It allows citizens, civil society and parliaments to find out what is being proposed so that they have an informed debate and make their views known before measures are adopted or implemented," Statewatch's Tony Bunyan said in a statement.

Bunyan later told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that he was not impressed by the commission's response to the watchdog's criticisms.

"Nobody expects the commission to publish emails with invitations for lunch," Bunyan told dpa.

"But if we don't have a register, we cannot know what they've got," he said.

Bunyan cited as an example recent negotiations over what kind of information European citizens should provide to the American authorities when flying to the United States.

A request from a member of the European Parliament on the new Passengers Name Record (PNR) obligations revealed that 96 documents, referring to negotiations on precisely what kind of personal information passengers should provide, had been exchanged between Washington and Brussels.

Of these, "only about 10 to 15 per cent have been published," Bunyan said.

Bunyan also noted that the creation of a register would still allow the commission to keep sensitive documents confidential.

Commission officials said Thursday they were already working towards the creation of a single register linking its departments in 2010. (dpa)