Law making in the Council to be more transparent

The decision-making process in the European Council is often seen as not being transparent. The European Parliament, the European Ombudsman and the Civil Society Contact Group are acting to end secrecy and lack of transparency in the European Council decision-making processes.

The European Parliament campaign

MEPs Chris Davies, Nigel Farage, Timothy Kirkhope, Jean Lambert and Gary Titley have therefore produced a written declaration on the matter aiming to end this secretive kind of law-making.

MEPs have also complained to the European Ombudsman in 2003 about the fact that the meetings of the Council acting in its legislative capacity are not open to the public.

In 2006, the European Parliament’s petition committee adopted a report by David Hammerstein Mintz MEP (Greens, Spain), calling to increase Council transparency. He particularly stressed arguments raised by the Civil Society Contact Group with regard to COREPER and conciliation committees openness.

The Ombudsman recommendations for more openness

Recently, the Ombudsman issued its special report regarding the Parliament’s complaint. The Ombudsman recommended that “the Council of the European Union should review its refusal to decide to meet publicly whenever it is acting in its legislative capacity”, and that the European Parliament could consider adopting the recommendation as a resolution.

Following the recent attempt for more openness from the Council (See below) the EU’s ombudsman Nikoforos Diamandouros mentioned that despite the Council step in December 2005, the transparency issue of the Council lawmaking is still partially touched. Indeed the intermediate stage of the debate has to be opened to citizens, which is where decisions and negotiations take place. In addition to that, issues which fall outside the co-decision procedure, will not be open to the public. Mr.Diamandouros concluded that ¨if the Council is serious about transparency, they should have decided to open all their meetings in the December decision.¨

The Civil Society Contact Group campaign on Council transparency

The Civil Society Contact Group campaign on transparency initiated NGO action to push for more transparency in the Council.

CSCG campaign includes several actions:
 letter to Tony Blair, reminding him of his June commitment,
 letter to Member States’ representations to the EU,
 letter to MEPs, asking them to support the UK MEPs’ initiative

Results: Move towards more transparency from the Council

Following the above-mentioned pressures, the Council of the European Union has eventually decided on the 21 December 2005 to open to the public part of their meetings: meetings where the issues fall under the co-decision procedure and thus to increase the openness by 20 %. Citizens and journalists will therefore be able to follow positions taken by the ministers. The controversial service directive may be the first to be discussed in public in 2006.

In June 2006, the European Council agreed on an overall policy on transparency, which further opens up the work of the Council by making all co-decision debates in the Council public.

Therefore, all the following deliberations will be public:
 Council deliberations on legislative acts to be adopted by co-decision
 Votes and the explanation of votes by Council Members
 Council’s first deliberations on legislative acts other than those adopted by co-decision, which given their importance are presented orally by the Commission in a Council session
 General Affairs and External Relations Council’s deliberations on the 18 month programme

The Council will also regularly hold public debates on important issues affecting the interests of the Union and its citizens. All public deliberations will be broadcasted in all languages through video streaming and a recorded version will be available for at least a month on the Council’s website.

These are crucial steps in regaining EU citizens’ trust.

List of Council deliberations open to the public on legislative acts under the Austrian Presidency

 Education, Youth and Culture Council - 18-19/05/06 - Revision of Directive 89/552/EEC "Television without frontiers"

 Justice and Home Affairs Council - 1-2/06/06 - Draft Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the Visa Information System (VIS) and the exchange of data between Member States on short-visas

 Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council - 1-2/06/06 - Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on improving the portability of supplementary pension rights

 Economic and Financial Affairs Council - 07/06/06 - New Legal Framework for Payments (NLF)

For more information:

The European Parliament Written declaration:

The European Parliament,

2. Instructs its President to forward this declaration, together with the names of the signatories, to the Presidency of the Council.