Sonderband 2. International Council on Archives. Dritte Europäische Archivkonferenz, Wien 11. bis 15. Mai 1993. Tagungsprotokolle (1996)
4. Session / Séance. Strategies for Links with Historical Research / Stratégies de Communication envers la Recherche historique - Palayret Jean-Marie: Towards a New History of Europe (integration period) / Pour une nouvelle Histoire européenne. La période de l’intégration) (english 393 - français 413)
4. Session/Séance: Palayret, Towards a new History of Europe that new demands are now being made regarding access to documents, considered as a democratic right of every citizen. As far as research approaches proper are concerned, an increasing number of studies are being devoted to contemporary, or very contemporary, history. The demand for access to very recent documents (up to twenty years in certain cases) is becoming increasingly strong. In general terms, the growing interest of researchers in the study of recent history has almost everywhere brought about a shortening of the communication time. On the other hand, the steadily growing number of historical studies is causing an inflation in the member of handlings of archival documents, seriously increasing risks of deterioration of the most fragile material24. As privileged users of archives, historians earnestly desire that the existing rules relating to access to archives be applied, while ensuring that the rules in force in the twelve countries are brought closer together. The thirty-year rule is regarded as a good period and historians are aware that there exist reserved areas. However, by pleading for uniformization and application of the rules, historians are reacting, politely but firmly, to the fact that all too often certain decisions on access are acts of the sovereign rather than of a public service. The group of national experts agreed that harmonization of all the release times among the various Member States would amount to achieving a European research area offering similar working conditions throughout Europe (on condition of nondiscrimination among citizens of different countries). Exceptions restricting access to archives concerning or potentially prejudicial to State security, individual privacy or the right to secrecy should be formulated as restrictively as possible, through specific clauses stripped of ambiguity. Disparities in this respect are numerous and often large from one country to another: sometimes they are defined only in general terms rather than restrictively. Moreover, it is desirable for the laws to „enumerate the categories of information to which free access must be assured, instead of, as at present, confining themselves to enumerating those excluded from this free access“. Finally, it is desirable for release times of over 100 or 150 years to be brought down to these maxima. If the existing difference among legislations of the various Member States in this area is to be reduced, one might in defining the catalogue of restrictions and of reserved documents take inspiration from the French legislation and the German law on Federal archives, which seek to circumscribe the series of documents in- acessible for longer times than normal in a precise manner. Over and above these principles, which have to do with a conception of freedom of information insofar as that is a democratic value, historians speak in favour of a real effort in practical terms at harmonizing provisions on access, to make conditions 24 Independently of the laws on the time for releasing archives, several European countries (Netherlands, France, Italy, Greece, Norway, Sweden) have adopted laws guaranteeing the citizen’s right to access to administrative documents as such. We should add that this right of access is guaranteed in the constitutions of Spain and Sweden. 408
