Around 50 archivists and scholars discussed recent research outputs and results from work carried out for the EUI Widening project ‘OPENARCH – Open Archives for Social Science Research in EU Widening countries’, during the 34th International Archival Day of the International Archives Science Institute at the Alma Mater Europaea university in Maribor, Slovenia, on 26 - 27 November 2024.
The research outputs presented during the conference included four papers which were recently published in the peer-reviewed archival science journal Atlanti + , as well as seven short country case studies on archival reform in EU member states and in EU neighbourhood countries.
Democracy, transparency and the right to information in Europe
The first session of the OPENARCH workshop was opened by Dieter Schlenker, Director of the Historical Archives of the European Union, who provided an overview of the OPENARCH project’s scope and objectives. His talk framed the archival reform efforts on access to public archives on European levels since the events of 1989, and highlighted the role of the Council of Europe and the European Union (EU) in democratic transformations in the archives sector in Central and Eastern Europe.
Ivan Szekely, Senior Research Fellow at the Blinken OSA Archivum in Budapest, presented the Council of Europe’s (CoE) Recommendation R(2000)13 on a European policy on access to archives and its implementation, outlining its scope and relevance and summarising the main findings of the 2022-2023 pan-European survey on the implementation of the recommendation in CoE member states. Szekely compared the results of the survey to a similar one conducted in 2004, demonstrating that while access practices overall have considerably improved since then, there are still some practices in place in Eastern Europe that are contrary to the CoE recommendations and to democratic principles concerning the right to information.
Charles J. Farrugia, Director of the National Archives and Head of the Library, Information and Archives Sciences Department at the University of Malta, presented his paper on how Malta’s entry into the EU impacted its archival sector. While the country’s archival access provisions have fluctuated over time due to its specific historical, political, and logistical context, Professor Farrugia could illustrate significant transformations, legislative reform, and a shift in cultural attitudes regarding archival policies and practice since accession.
Dorota Drzewiecka, Assistant Professor at the Department of Archival Studies and Auxiliary Sciences of History at the University of the National Education Commission in Krakow, spoke about factors restricting post-1989 access to records in Polish archives. Her paper included an evaluation of the legal framework concerning access to archives in Poland post-1989, tracing the changes, as well as their causes and limitations. To this end she analysed the main legal acts on the Polish State Archives and conducted a survey among 26 Polish historians and users of public archives. According to the survey, users have an easier time accessing historical documentation; access to more recent archives, which may include sensitive or confidential documents, tends to be restricted. While the transformation of Polish archives at the end of the 20th century was generally consistent with EU policies, classified archives of central state authorities and the Institute of National Remembrance are less accessible as the Polish archival administration has no authority over these institutions.
Seven case studies on public access to archives
The second day of the workshop focused on case studies on archival access in Poland, Hungary, Czechia, Croatia, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Ukraine.
Piotr Frąckowiak, Archives Director of the Szczecin University, spoke on university archives in Poland. While under the Soviet regime, these archives were largely closed except to individual requests for scientific or state/party purposes. Although the Polish Archives Act of 1983 did not specifically concern university archives, university archives became successively more open during the 1990s, despite various access restrictions that remain in place.
The Hungarian case study, presented by senior archivist Ildiko Szerényi of the Hungarian National Archives, focused on the mission of the Hungarian government since the early 2000s to make historical documents publicly available in digital format on the internet. The legal basis for this strengthened public access to archives was laid down in Hungary’s 1995 Archival Act.
EU accession in 2004 is part of the story of the Czech Republic’s ‘archival miracle’, presented by Professor Marie Ryantová from the Institute of Archival Science and Auxiliary Historical Sciences at the University of České Budějovice. She highlighted the important legislative reform that led to the Archival Act of 2004, and that was preceded by the construction of 60 new purpose-built archival deposits in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Katarina Horvat, archival advisor at the State Archives of Zagreb, presented the Croatian case. Her talk laid out the archival reforms that became necessary due to the country’s separation from Yugoslavia, and that were set out in the first Archives Act in 1997. Her talk provided an overview of the subsequent establishment of new State Archives, the adoption of European standards and norms, the modernisation of archival methods, and the new service-orientation focusing on digital access, found in the more recent Archival Act of 2018.
The final three presentations provided case studies from the EU neighbourhood countries of North Macedonia, Montenegro and the Ukraine. Svetlana Usprcova highlighted the role of the national archives in North Macedonia as “protector of national identity” in the aftermath of the dissolution of former Yugoslavia. With the first archival legislation was passed in the early 1990s, the most recent 2016 Act is notable for its recognition of international norms and standards, and its clear strategic goals regarding open access and digitization. Maruska Nenezic described the national archives situation in Montenegro since its independence from Yugoslavia and the implementation of a national archives ssystem under the leadership of the State Archives of Montenegro, located in the historic capital of Cetinje. Finally, Maryna Paliienko presented the Ukrainian case since its 1991 independence. For Paliienko, the Ukrainian State Archives “contributes to the democratic development of Ukraine” and its Archival law of 1993 aimed at “reforming Ukraine’s archival institutions and preserving the Ukrainian cultural heritage”. The amendment of 2019 ensured equal access to archives by all categories of users. The 2024 amendment secured the “implementation of reforms based on the principles of democratisation and protection of the rights of archives owners and information consumers” in the current war situation, which caused the removal, alienation and destruction of public and private archival assets by the Russian invasion of Ukrainian territory.
Access the OPENARCH papers in Atlanti+ 34/2024 here.
The EUI Widening Europe Programme initiative, backed by contributions from the European Union and EUI Contracting States, is designed to strengthen internationalisation, competitiveness, and quality in research in the targeted Widening countries, and thus foster a more cohesive European Higher Education and Research area.