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<p /> <p /> <p>Access to documents held by the European Union (EU) is governed by
Regulation 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission
documents (the Regulation), which provides a public right of access to documents held
by these three institutions. The Regulation has also been extended to further EU institutions
through other instruments. Information relating to the EU may also be requested from
UK public authorities under domestic information rights legislation, including the
Freedom of Information Act 2000.</p><p> </p><p>Neither the Regulation nor domestic
legislation contain provisions which prohibit the disclosure of information simply
because its release would be disadvantageous to the EU, and there are no plans to
introduce such a measure. However, both the Regulation and domestic legislation provide
a range of exemptions, often subject to a public interest test, which permit bodies
subject to them to withhold genuinely sensitive information from disclosure where
release would undermine legitimate interests specified in that legislation. These
include, for example, exemptions which may be relied upon to protect international
relations, commercial interests or the decision-making processes for making EU legislation.</p>
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