A number of Member States have objected to the Secretariat-General of the Council of the European Union’s intention to abolish access by national parliaments to the EU Council’s legislative database in order to prevent leaks of documents, particularly to the media.
Germany, Austria, Denmark, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands and Slovakia are reported to have strongly opposed this move, which they believe would undermine efforts to ensure transparency and Member State control of the legitimacy of political action at European level.
If access is cut off, it would be “a huge own goal” on the part of the EU institution, said a diplomatic source on Monday 2 October. And this will have the worst possible effect in the run-up to the European elections in June 2024.
The outcry from the aforementioned Member States has even led to requests for connection from Member States whose national parliaments do not have access to the EU Council’s legislative portal.
These discussions have been escalated to the level of the Member States’ ambassadors to the EU (Coreper), with Italy requesting that the technical and legal aspects of the issue be assessed. The Netherlands has requested that access to the portal be maintained in the meantime.
In this case, a legal dispute over the interpretation of the EU Council’s rules of procedure divides the Secretariat, which believes it has the power to take independent decisions, and the Member States, for whom the Secretariat is at the service of the EU Council and its six-monthly Presidency. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)