The FIA has so far refused to comment on the reasoning behind the new rules.
BBC Sport has specifically asked for a comment on Schmerrold’s allegations but has not received a response.
Shamrold said Ben Salem and head of legal affairs Paul O’Dowd had responded to his objections when he raised them on Tuesday.
He said: “The response from the president and the head of legal was that it was necessary to prevent it from being published to a wider audience in order to protect the (identity) of those who might be under investigation.
“Their argument is that not sharing ethics committee reports with the full Senate protects individuals from being exposed to the wider public. Anyone who could be the subject of an investigation.”
Schmerrold said he disagreed with that line of argument.
“If we cannot trust the integrity of the senator, then we have another problem,” he said.
“The Senate is made up of 16 people who look at the report. We have to have confidence that they will deal with the subject properly. I would like to keep it with 16 people, the majority of whom are really independent, of a close group. In comparison, the only two that are not independent of each other.”
Shmerold added that a proposed new law mandating that if the FIA president or Senate president is investigated, the other receives a report, was also a cause for concern because the two men are allies.
The president of the Senate, Carmelo Sanz de Barros, is a member of Ben Salem’s four-person leadership team.
Schmerrold said: “There is a strong connection between individuals and if only two of them are responsible for control, it is no longer independent.”
He said he was also worried about a new approach adopted by the FIA leadership in making proposals.
“This time, as proposed in June this year, the World Councils were asked to vote only by e-vote, without any meeting, without any debate, and parallel to the e-vote of the World Council. But the documents were already there and sent to all members in the General Assembly,” he said.
Schmerrold is not attending the General Assembly in person to “show our distance from current developments” and said the Austrian federation will vote remotely.
