Parliament top of league for transparency, survey reveals

Date: 08/05/02

By Martin Banks

THE European Parliament is top of a league table when it comes to transparency in the major EU institutions, a new study has found.

The 626-member assembly scored the highest marks in the survey, followed by the European Commission. The Council of Ministers, often criticised for its lack of openness, was graded the worst of the three.

The survey was carried out by the EU Committee of the British Chamber of Commerce and Society of European Affairs Professionals (SEAP).

The chamber and SEAP asked 250 of their members, who include lobbyists, industrialists and lawyers, how they rated the three main EU institutions.

Members were asked to rank each from one (excellent) to five (highly unsatisfactory) on a range of 19 topics.

The categories which achieved the worst gradings were:

• Renewal of Parliamentary passes;
• Access to results of 'comitology' (committees of national officials) procedures and;
• Access to results of working group documents.

Scoring strongest with respondents to the questionnaire were access to websites and downloading and access to documents from the Parliament and Commission.

The committee's chairwoman, Elizabeth Crossick, said the results of the survey show the EU has some work to do when it comes to improving transparency.

'The average score given by our members was 3.4, that is, between 'fair' and 'unsatisfactory',' she said. 'This isn't really good enough.

'The work being carried out on the issue of transparency by all three institutions, however, is encouraging. What we need to nurture is a culture of transparency and openness.'

Despite being rated top of the 'big three' institutions, Parliament was singled out for the length of time it takes to renew visitors' passes.

This scored a low 4.3 in the survey and was the most common complaint.

The permanent passes are issued to stakeholders but have to be renewed after 12 months.

Many members, however, complained about inordinate delays in receiving their passes.

On a brighter note, access to the three institutions' website pages was highly rated.

The chamber has also welcomed plans by the three institutions to set up an online public register by 3 June.

David O'Sullivan, the Commission's secretary-general, will be guest speaker when the chamber and SEAP publishes the survey results at the parliament on 21 May.

The European Parliament is highly rated when it comes to transparency in the major EU institutions, according to a new study carried out by the EU Committee of the British Chamber of Commerce and Society of European Affairs Professionals (SEAP).