As of today, a constitutional amendment has come into effect in Austria, abolishing the provision that the operations of state bodies were an "official secret".
The constitution from now on, after a century of secrecy, stipulates that authorities operate transparently. The Public Information Act also came into effect, granting citizens the right to access the work of government bodies. State authorities, municipalities with more than 5,000 inhabitants, and numerous public institutions and state-owned companies must proactively publish information and respond to data requests within four weeks.
Alma Mater Vienna, part of Alma Mater Europaea University, leads the IFG.at project aimed at monitoring the implementation of the new regulation and preparing government bodies for the changes. The team consists of 25 leading experts, including five Harvard University graduates, Wall Street Journal journalist Laine Higgins, Bloomberg journalist Samuel Stolton, University of Texas professor Richard Albert, HEC Paris professor Alberto Alemanno, George Washington University professor Mary Anne Franks, American University in Washington professor David Lublin, and others.
The IFG project team, led by Prof. Dr. Jurij Toplak, constitutional lawyer and head of Alma Mater Vienna, submitted the first ten data requests just seconds after midnight when the new regulation came into effect. Among other things, they requested from the Austrian Ministry of Justice a list of all Austrian federal judges. By submitting these requests immediately at midnight, they symbolically demonstrated that government bodies must start complying with the new transparency regulation immediately.
The law stipulates that publicly accessible information should primarily be of broader significance, such as contracts worth more than 100,000 euros. The purpose is to enable people to gain insight into the spending of public money and the functioning of state institutions. Although there are exceptions (e.g., security, public order, protection of private interests), disputed cases will be judged by the court.
On the first day, many Austrian media outlets reported on the work of the Alma Mater IFG project, including Die Presse, Salzburger Nachrichten, Vienna.at, and the APA agency.
