Fifteen civil society representatives in Spain have sent a letter to the Spanish government requesting more transparency and communication during the creation process of the country’s third National Action Plan.

Earlier this month, the OGP Steering Committee sent a letter to the Spanish government, saying it had failed to meet its commitments to the OGP. “At this moment, the government is preparing the third Action Plan of Spain and we are concerned about the delay in the elaboration, as well as the lack of communication and information about it,” they wrote.

The civil society representatives reminded in their letter that the Spanish government had committed to ODG principles. It “must create a forum (or identify an existing one) on which to share information on progress, integrating a participatory process of monitoring or consultation during implementation, and where citizens can participate and the different relevant or affected actors can be effectively represented”.

Ensure a high-level presence in Paris

In their letter, the civil society members also urged the government to send a government minister or Secretary of State to the Paris OGP Summit in December. “Following the absence of representation of the government of Spain at the last OGP meeting in Mexico in 2015, we encourage the government to show its commitment through the assistance of a high-level representative”, the letter states.

According to Access Info Europe, Spain sent only one mid-representative to the OGP Summit in London and no one to the Mexico Summit in 2015. Access Info Europe defines itself as “a human rights organisation established in Madrid in 2006 and dedicated to promoting and protecting the right of access to information”.