The Council of Europe Recommendation R(2000)13 on a European policy on access to archives and its implementation

Purpose: The aim of this article is to briefly introduce the Council of Europe Recommendation R(2000)13 on a European policy on access to archives, explain its relevance, summarize the main findings of the 2022-2023 pan-European surveyvey and outline the main challenges in the field of access to archives.
Methods/Approach: After a brief historical overview, the main principles of the Recommendation are listed, followed by a quantitative data analysis of the results of the pan-European survey, supplemented by expert interviews. The dilemmas and results of developing a compliance index are presented.
Results: It can be concluded that the situation of access to European public archives has improved considerably during the last two decades, but that there are still certain practices, especially in the Eastern part of Europe, which are contrary to the provisions of the Recommendation and the principles of democratic information rights. Political and social traditions do not determine access patterns.
Conclusions/Findings: Rapid technological development creates new challenges in terms of access and the relationship between archives and users. The principles of the Recommendation remain valid but may need to be modernized in order to include technological developments.