Exploring Freedom of Information Patterns in Europe: A Cluster Analysis of Legal Frameworks

Freedom of Information (FOI) laws encourage citizens’ and CSOs’ watchdog function by providing them with a legal tool for holding the government accountable for their actions. To date, most countries across the globe have established and continuously renewed FOI laws, with well over half of these law adoptions taking place over the last three decades. The global spread of FOI laws reflects the growth of international normative principles supported by international multilateral initiatives and actors. In our empirical analysis, the strength of statutory provisions that regulate access to information is measured through original data, based on the coding of legal frameworks in 12 European Union countries in the period 2000-2022. Cluster analysis reveals that EU countries are rather heterogeneous in their commitment to international normative principles in terms of scope of access to information, procedures, sanctions and other dimensions of legal design. By using regression analyses, we identify the factors that affect the strength of FOI regulation.