Confidential Documents Documents are confidential when their unauthorised disclosure could harm the essential interests of an individual,

the Foundation or the EU Commonly accepted criteria for confidentiality are where the release of a document would: Harm the privacy and integrity of an individual; Breach undertakings to respect the confidential nature of information provided by third parties; Breach statutory restrictions on disclosure of information; Cause financial loss or facilitate improper gain or advantage for individuals or companies; Impede or undermine the effective management or operations of the Foundation; Documents classified as confidential include: Personnel files of Foundation staff containing details of recruitment, promotion and medicals; Documents containing financial and commercial information supplied by third parties; Restricted Documents Documents are restricted when their unauthorised disclosure would be disadvantageous to the Foundation, the EU or a third party. Documents with this classification are usually restricted for a period of time. Foundation documents falling under this category may include: Documents of internal management meetings; Documents of groups involved in the preparation of the work programme; Documents that have not been finalised or adopted; Documents containing sensitive details supplied by third parties in confidence; Management reports prepared by external consultants

Classification of Documents

For distribution purposes, many documents of the United Nations are classified in the three following categories: general, limited and restricted. 1) General: documents receiving full circulation. This designation is used on basic documents and final meeting records, including agendas, studies and reports, communications from Governments, resolutions and other decisions of main organs; 2) Limited: documents for which wide circulation is unnecessary because of the temporary nature of the documents, such as draft resolutions, and amendments thereto, draft reports and other action documents. The designation "limited" is indicated by an "L" in the symbol. Some technical documents which are issued for delegates are issued as limited documents. These may contain important information of interest to researchers calling upon the services of the library. Documents in the limited category are generally available for a relatively short period of time. Therefore, it is advantageous to request limited documents not received through regular distribution, or additional copies of limited documents soon after the original document is issued, whenever this is feasible. 3) Restricted: this designation applies exclusively to documents whose content requires that they be treated as confidential or that they be withheld from public circulation. The designation "Restricted" is indicated by an "R" in the symbol identifying the document. In general, libraries do not receive any documents designated as restricted, and researchers requesting them should be informed that they are not available. Nevertheless, it should be noted that some documents are

derestricted after a period of time.