Transparency International (TI) presented a report on Tuesday 5 February highlighting the Eurogroup's lack of transparency and accountability at a conference in Brussels.
According to this report, even if the Eurogroup, as the "informal government of the euro area", cannot, legally speaking, take decisions, in practice, it does adopt its decisions through other institutions.
In this way, the Eurogroup shirks all responsibility, while its decisions can have a profound impact on the lives of millions of citizens, says Transparency International.
"Ministers have grown comfortable with negotiating behind closed doors, so closer democratic scrutiny would make life more difficult for them", said Leo Hoffmann-Axthelm, TI's research and advocacy coordinator for the euro area.
The report therefore highlights various measures to improve the transparency, accountability and integrity of the Eurogroup.
They include: - the transformation of the Eurogroup into a formal body with direct responsibility at European Union level; - mandatory hearings of the President of the Eurogroup before the European Parliament; - the creation of a register containing all Eurogroup documents.
In addition, while the current regime provides that the President of the Eurogroup must be one of the national Finance Ministers - thus splitting his time between these two functions - the report suggests electing a full-time President. TI considers that such a measure would avoid any conflict of interest.
Finally, the organisation calls for the Eurogroup's transparency regime - in particular the publication of detailed agendas - to also apply to preparatory bodies, a position also expressed by Rosita Hickey, a member of the European Ombudsman's cabinet, at the conference.
For her, the transparency efforts initiated by the current President of the Eurogroup, Mário Centeno, although encouraging, are not enough because they do not concern the first stages of the decision-making process of the euro area finance ministers.
"I believe that the lack of transparency in the Eurogroup preparatory bodies is still an issue. It limits the ability of the public to scrutinise how decisions about eurozone governance are prepared, informed and taken", she said.
Mrs Hickey also recalled that a few weeks ago, the European Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, rightly denounced the lack of transparency (see EUROPE 12174), particularly within the Council of the EU, which for far too long has fuelled the 'blame Brussels culture' (sic) and thus strengthened the Eurosceptics.
For his part, Centeno's spokesman, Luis Rego, assured that he would inform the Eurogroup of TI's recommendations and said he was open to new ideas, while recalling the progress made since the beginning of the Portuguese Minister's presidency in terms of transparency, such as inviting experts to the Eurogroup and publishing their presentations.
Finally, for the Financial Times reporter Mehreen Khan, making "cosmetic changes" to the functioning of the Eurogroup - such as TI's recommendations - will not prevent the most vocal opponents of the euro from pointing the finger at legitimacy problems in the governance of the single currency. Only a change in the treaties could do that, she added.
See the report: https://bit.ly/2SyTN1c (original version in French by Damien Genicot - intern)