Recommendation No. R (2000) 13 on a European policy on access to archives was adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 13 July 2000. This Recommendation was agreed upon on the basis that archives form an essential and irreplaceable part of cultural heritage. It belongs to a series of instruments developed and adopted by the Council of Europe in the early 2000s for fostering transparency and promoting confidence between peoples.

It formulates several principles, with a view to fostering sound policies in the member States on access to archives, by adopting legislation or by bringing existing legislation into line with the principles set out in the Recommendation.

Following adoption of the Recommendation, Mr Charles Kecskeméti, at that time Secretary General of the International Council of Archives (ICA) and Mr Iván Székely, senior professor at the Open Society Archives at the Central European University in Budapest, both key participants in the drafting and development of the Recommendation, initiated a pan-European survey on European states’ compliance with the Recommendation. The results of the survey were published by the Council of Europe in 2005 under the title “Access to archives. A handbook of guidelines for implementation of Rec No (2000) 13 on a European Policy on access to archives”.  

On 31 March 2021, in reply to a question by a parliamentarian on access to archives, the Committee of Ministers asked the CDCPP to consider conducting a study on the implementation of this Recommendation.

The follow-up explores and evaluates the current situation and provides an insight into access to archives in Council of Europe member States, twenty years after the adoption of Recommendation No. R (2000) 13.

• Executive summary