According to the annual Commission's report on access to documents, European citizens requested in 2011 access to a number of documents slightly lower that those requested in the previous year. The gradual reduction in the total number of documents requested might be due in part to the increasing awareness of citizens about their right to access documents and to Commission's efforts to add more and more documents to the public registry.

According to the results of the report on public access to documents of the Commission during year 2011, most part of the applications received over that year were related to taxation and customs union overcoming those related to competition. In total there were 6,447 requests for documents from the Commission, compared to 6,361 requested in 2010. Both figures are far from the 450 requests registered in 2001, when current rules entered into force.

The stabilization of the requests put forward by EU citizens may be caused by the fact that they are better aware of their right of access to Commission's documents. In addition, the Commission has made a major effort for transparency by adding an increasing number of documents to the public register. During 2011 the total number of documents added to the register increased by 7%.

In terms of their result, 80.20% of total request were allowed access to documents, towards 12.18% which were rejected and 7.62% which were granted a limited access to documents. According to the report the highest number of requests came from Belgium wityh 21.42%, followed by Italy and Germany with 12.37% and 12.27% respectively.

These results highlight the outcomes of the efforts made by the European Commission to make its activities increasingly open and transparent for citizens. Within this scope, the Commission implemented in June 2012 its Transparency Portal which aims at making the decision making process more accessible for citizens.