API has launched a new transparency group aimed at turning the tide against opaque EU institutions. Open to everyone from specialist data nerds to general correspondents—especially when ghosted by EU bodies—the “commando unit” has a threefold mission:
- Evidence: Gathering concrete proof of document mishandling.
- Muscle: Using API’s collective voice to push back against the Commission’s “let’s-go-bilateral” approach to information access.
- ApiHours: Training accredited hacks to fight back against so-called “frivolous” refusals.
Pascal Hansens, the group’s representative on the API Council, views the redacted files landing on journalists’ desks with a mix of dark humour and professional alarm.
“They often look like masterpieces,” Hansens says. “Sometimes the freedom-of-information return is totally black, abstract. Sometimes it’s totally grey.”
Behind the humour lies a grim reality for the Brussels press corps. Hansens, a veteran “bubble” journalist with 12 years at outlets including Agence Europe and Investigate Europe, warns that the gatekeepers of the Berlaymont are no longer merely stalling—they are effectively shredding the legislator’s rulebook.
“In recent years, the Commission has shown less and less respect for the EU’s cornerstone Access to Documents regulation,” he says. While the 2001 law mandates a response within 15 working days, Hansens notes that appeal procedures now routinely drag on for several months.
Hansens recalls a letter signed last year by more than 140 journalists and sent to transparency czar Maroš Šefčovič. While it led to a “positive” meeting, it resulted in zero follow-up.
The frustration is not just the ticking clock, but increasingly “opaque practices”: anonymous officials selecting and “capping” document counts without explanation, or messages on Signal being automatically deleted. Reporters hunting for lobbyist meeting minutes or the carbon footprint of Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra‘s global travels frequently receive these “masterpieces”, where entire pages are rendered useless by the digital Sharpie.
That is why Hansens, together with other API members using investigative reporting techniques, set up a group dedicated to improving correspondents’ access to EU documents—and, more broadly, transparency within EU institutions.