Article 7

The competent authorities shall ensure that they carry out their activities with a high level of transparency. For that purpose, relevant information held by them shall be made available to the public as soon as possible. In general, the public shall have access to: information on the control activities of the competent authorities and their effectiveness, and information pursuant to Article 10 of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002. The competent authority shall take steps to ensure that members of their staff are required not to disclose information acquired when undertaking their official control duties which by its nature is covered by professional secrecy in duly justified cases. Protection of professional secrecy shall not prevent the dissemination by the competent authorities of information referred to in paragraph l(b). The rules of Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data OJ L 281, 23.11.1995, p. 31. Directive as amended by Regulation (EC) No 1882/2003. remain unaffected. Information covered by professional secrecy includes in particular: the confidentiality of preliminary investigation proceedings or of current legal proceedings; personal data; the documents covered by an exception in Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents OJ L 145, 31.5.2001, p. 43. ; information protected by national and Community legislation concerning in particular professional secrecy, the confidentiality of deliberations, international relations and national defence.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-01 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.