Many of the documents relating to the work of the Committee of Ministers (CM) are classified "restricted" at the time of issue, which means that only the governments of member and observer States and the Secretariat of the Council of Europe have access to them. The majority of these documents are declassified immediately after the meeting at which they are examined by the CM, although certain documents may remain classified for one year from the date of issue.

Documents prepared by the Ministers’ Deputies' working groups (GR-C, GR-DEM, etc.) are usually classified "restricted" for one year from the date of issue.

Very rarely, a document may be classified “confidential" at the time of issue, which means that only member State governments have access to it. Confidential documents are declassified after 10 years.

The texts currently in force on access to documents are CM/Del/Dec(1998)641/1.3 and CM/Del/Dec(2000)735/1.5a, para. 7.