17.11.1999 Official Journal of the European Communities L 296/25 EUROPEAN FOUNDATION FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF LIVING AND WORKING CONDITIONS THE EUROPEAN FOUNDATION FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF LIVING AND WORKING CONDITIONS DECISION of 21 November 1997 on code of conduct concerning public access to documents of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (1999/738/EC) THE ADMINISTRATIVE BOARD OF THE EUROPEAN FOUNDATION FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF LIVING AND WORKING CONDITIONS, Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No 1365/75 of 26 May 1975 on the creation of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (*), as amended by Regulation (EEC) No 1947/93 (2, Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No 1417/76 of 1 June 1976 on financial provisions applying to the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (*), as last amended by Regulation (EEC) No 1949/93 (¥, Having regard to Commission Decision of 8 February 1994 on public access to Commission documents, HAS DECIDED to adopt the following code of conduct concerning public access to Foundation documents. General principle The public will have the widest possible access to documents held by the Foundation. ‘Document’ means any written text, whatever its medium, which contains existing data and is held by the Foundation. Processing of initial applications An application for access to a document will have to be made in writing, in a sufficiently precise manner; it will have to contain information that will enable the document or documents concerned to be identified. Where necessary, the Foundation will ask the applicant for further details. Where the document held by the Foundation was written by a natural or legal person, a Member State, another Community institution or body of any other national or international body, the application must be sent direct to the author. In consultation with the applicants, the Foundation will find a fair solution to comply with repeat applications andfor those which relate to very large documents. The applicant will have access to documents either by consulting them on the spot or by having a copy sent at his own expense. A fee of ECU 10, plus ECU 0,036 per sheet of paper, may be charged for copies of printed documents exceeding 30 pages. Charges for information in other formats shall be set on a case-by-case basis but shall not exceed what is reasonable. The Foundation will be able to stipulate that a person to whom a document is released will not be allowed to reproduce or circulate the said document for commercial purposes through direct sale without its prior authorisation. () O] L 139, 30.5.1975, p. 1. () O] L 181, 23.7.1993, p. 13. () O] L 164, 24.6.1976, p. 16. (% O] L 181, 23.7.1993, p. 26.