In advance of the European Council on the Strategic Agenda for the next 5 years, the Netherlands, with the support of Estonia, Ireland, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Sweden, presented a document on Tuesday 18 June aimed at increasing the transparency of the decision-making process at European level, specifically in the context of interinstitutional negotiations (trilogues).
“Transparency is not a ‘nice thing to have’. It is essential to foster public support for our work here", the Dutch Foreign Minister, Stef Blok, reportedly stated on the occasion of the document's presentation during the General Affairs Council on Tuesday 18 June, according to the comments reported by the Twitter account of the Dutch Permanent Representation.
Among the major proposals is the systematic publication of the EU Council's interim legislative documents as part of the interinstitutional negotiations. The Member States cited are requesting an annual review of the confidentiality system within the EU Council (which currently classifies documents into 4 categories) in order to accelerate the confidentiality status of documents.
A proposal was also put forward to revise Regulation 1049/2001 on public access to European Parliament, EU Council and European Commission documents in order to make public the dates of the trilogue meetings, including agendas and a short summary of the main points of discussion.
Not stopping there, the six Member States are proposing an "active dissemination" of the content of the agreements reached at the end of the negotiations (the infamous provisional agreements), accompanied systematically by a press release.
Other proposals are also put forward: - the systematic approval and publication of general approaches before the trilogues begin; - a uniform transcription of the main political lines and discussions within the EU Council, but also of the national declarations in the Note accompanying the general approach; - or even an interinstitutional standardisation of databases.
European Ombudsman. The proposals were warmly welcomed by the European Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, who noted that this initiative follows an earlier initiative in 2015. "Europeans have a right to know what their governments are doing in Brussels", she said on this occasion, criticising the European Council's slowness in the area of transparency vis-à-vis the European Commission and the European Parliament.
Denmark has not been able to support the initiative, as the government is currently being formed, while Finland—which would also be in favour—has not put its name forward due to its upcoming role holding the Presidency of the Council of the EU. According to a diplomatic source, France and Germany are not particularly enthusiastic at the moment.
To consult the document: https://bit.ly/2Fl0YSR (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)