On Tuesday, 14 July, the Ambassadors to the EU (Coreper II) approved, without discussion, the German Presidency of the Council of the EU’s proposal to increase the legislative transparency of the Council of the EU.
This is an “institutionalisation” of practices that occurred during the Finnish Presidency of the Council of the EU, which launched a pilot initiative for greater transparency.
According to a document that EUROPE has seen, the Council of the EU consequently particularly supports making the following documents publicly available: - working group agendas; - progress reports submitted to Coreper (unless one or more delegations object); - the Council of the EU's negotiating mandates; - documents drawn up for interinstitutional negotiations (trilogues) that include the initial positions (and not compromise proposals) and the final Council of the EU position following consideration by Coreper.
In addition, the Council of the EU undertakes to conduct “active communication” on social networks on the state of progress of the various legislative dossiers, including interinstitutional negotiations. Lastly, the Council of the EU says that, if required, it is prepared to revisit the issue of potential new transparency measures for the future.
Transparency International pleased. When EUROPE contacted Nicholas Aiossa, the Deputy Director of Transparency International EU, he welcomed the announcement, but remained cautious. “How meaningful these measures are will greatly depend on the proactiveness and scope of the documents they publish, especially concerning specific legislative files”, he said.
He added that the biggest problem is still that Member States’ positions will still not be published. “Until this happens, it will probably remain impossible for citizens to engage in the policy process and be able to hold their respective governments to account”.
According to one diplomatic source, this is an important step towards greater transparency but the Council of the EU is unlikely to move forward in the immediate future.
Transparency register. The three institutions resumed interinstitutional negotiations on the transparency register on 16 June (see EUROPE 12508/26). Technical meetings continued throughout June. The next political meeting is due to be held after the summer, in September. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)