Brussels, 20 March 2015

Joint open letter to the members of  the Legal affairs (JURI) Committee of the European Parliament. Amendments are needed to preserve freedom of speech for journalists and whistle-blowers, and access to regulatory and scientific data of public interest.

> Click here to download the joint open letter (pdf, 412 Ko)

Joint open letter

In November 2013, the European Commission released its proposed directive on the "protection of undisclosed know-how and business information (trade secrets) against their unlawful acquisition, use and disclosure".

For the European Parliament, the Legal affairs (JURI) Committee is the leading Committee on this text. However, Mrs Constance Le Grip’s draft report for the JURI Committee only timidly improves the text.

On 20 March 2015, in their joint letter to JURI Committee members, Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), the Medicines in Europe Forum (MiEF) and the International Society of Drug Bulletins (ISDB) denounced the fact that the proposed directive is currently too vague and that repressive approach it proposes threatens civil liberties.

Among their main issues for concerns:

• An excessively broad definition of "trade secrets", including scientific data that is in the public interest;
• Shifting documents that are currently in the public domain to the trade secrets domain;
• Restrictions on the freedom of expression of journalists and whistle-blowers.

They also called for more ambitious amendments in order to preserve both freedom of speech for journalists and their sources (including whistle-blowers), and access to regulatory and scientific data of public interest:

• regulatory data of public interest should be explicitly excluded from the definition of "trade secret" (article 2);
• information whose disclosure is in the public interest and information whose publication is a responsibility of public authorities should be explicitly defined as exceptions to which the "measures, procedures and remedies" provided for by the directive would not apply (article 4(2)); and additional restrictions should be deleted.

Corporate Europe Observatory    
International Society of Drug Bulletins
Medicines in Europe Forum

©Corporate Europe Observatory, International Society of Drug Bulletins, Medicines in Europe Forum, February 2015

> Click here to download the joint open letter (pdf, 412 Ko)