6. Conclusions

1. Citizens are entitled to be informed by the Public Service, when they so require, about the progress of proceedings in which they are directly interested and to know the final decisions that are taken with respect to them. 2. Citizens shall also enjoy the right to have access to administrative records and files, subject to the legal provisions with respect to internal and external security, investigation of crime and personal privacy. 3. Administrative action shall be notified to interested parties in the manner prescribed by law; it shall be based on stated and accessible substantial grounds when it affects legally protected rights or interests. 4. Interested parties are guaranteed effective protection of the courts for their legally protected rights or interests, including recognition of these rights or interests, challenging any administrative action, regardless of its form, that affects these, enforcing administrative acts that are legally due and adopting appropriate protective measures. 5. Citizens are also entitled to object against administrative regulations that have external validity and that are damaging to their legally protected rights or interests. 6. For the purposes of paragraphs 1 and 2, the law shall fix the maximum period within which the Public Service must respond.

Article 271

1. Officials and other personnel of the State and other public bodies shall be responsible in civil, criminal or disciplinary proceedings for their acts or omission when performing their functions for actions that result in infringements of the rights or interests of citizens that are legally protected; no action or proceedings in respect of these matters shall be dependent, at any stage, on the prior approval of a superior authority.

6. Conclusions

The right to good governance or good administration has not developed in isolation. Several principles of good governance were already developed in regulations and in codes which can be seen as the building blocks for the development of the right to good governance. There were even more developments since the controlling institutions, such as the European Ombudsman, have also developed these principles of good governance in different ways in their assessments of the activities of the administration. In parallel, specific rights such as the right to transparency and the right to participation are also in development.

PART III

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PRINCIPLES OF GOOD GOVERNANCE ON THE NATIONAL, EU, AND INTERNATIONAL LEVEL