Transparency and access to information in Central and Eastern Europe

For decades, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe were shut off from the mainstream of democratic development. Since the end of Communist or state-socialist political systems in 1989 and thereafter, the region has seen a flurry of efforts to make up for the lost years, developing new legal and institutional frameworks apace in an effort to transform whole societies rapidly into functioning democracies. Some of the most essential such efforts focus on transparency and accountability of the public sector. From a starting point of almost complete governmental opacity, the region presents in microcosm the whole array of issues that can arise in the struggle to achieve greater transparency.