INFORMATION POLICY: COUNCIL MOVES TO KEEP LEGAL OPINIONS CONFIDENTIAL.

The complaint arose from a Council decision on 18 September last year, to deny a Mr Raphanl Vuitton access to two documents. On 13 December 2000, the Ombudsman sent a letter to Council Secretary-General/High Representative, Javier Solana, informing him about the complaint. Mr Vuitton argues the refusal of access contravenes Article 255 of the EU Treaty and Council Decision 93/731/EC on public access to Council documents, and asks the Ombudsman to annul the refusal.The Council is likely to point out in its reply that the complainant's arguments are legal ones, which means the Ombudsman would not be competent to judge their merit. Only the European Court of Justice or Court of First Instance can rule on such matters. Nevertheless, the draft reply rebuts the arguments levelled against it by citing Court of Justice rulings, which recognise the need to protect Legal Service Opinions. The Council has previously released Legal Service information notes to Mr Vuitton, but it argues that these merely summarise basic arguments from proceedings. By contrast, where legal experts make their own suggestions, the Council wants to safeguard their confidentiality.The case also raises the importance of document labelling. The complainant claims documents called "information notes" should be accessible to the public. The draft response holds that...