Ombudsman says Member States must open up their opaque negotiations on EU laws

The European Ombudsman issued its Recommendation ... in case OI/2/2017/TE on the Transparency of the Council legislative process on the 9 February 2018.

Following a detailed inquiry launched in March 2017, the European Ombudsman found that the Council of the EU - through practices that inhibited the scrutiny of draft EU legislation - undermined citizens’ right to hold their elected representatives to account. This constituted maladministration.

The Ombudsman specifically criticised the Council’s failure systematically to record the identity of Member States taking positions during discussions on draft legislation, and the widespread practice of disproportionately marking documents as not for circulation, or 'LIMITE'.

The Ombudsman expected the Council to reply by 9 May 2018.

Access Info welcomed the European Ombudsman recommendation. 'It is positive that, following the landmark 2013 Court ruling, the Council now releases documents containing Member State names upon request, but poor record keeping often makes this meaningless and undermines accountability of EU institutions and EU Member states', stated Helen Darbishire, Executive Director of Access Info Europe.

EUObserver, 13.02.18: EU ombudsman urges Council to publish secret documents https://euobserver.com/institutional/140955

EuroppBlog, 18.10.17: Why it’s not so simple to make the EU simpler (et al) http://www.europeansources.info/record/why-its-not-so-simple-to-make-the-eu-simpler/

Atlantic Council: Report: The European Union Could Be Simple, Inclusive, or Effective. Pick Two, 2017 http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/publications/reports/the-european-union-could-be-simple-inclusive-or-effective-pick-two

Access Info Europe: News, 13.02.18: Greater transparency of Council legislative process, fundamental for representative democracy, says European Ombudsman https://www.access-info.org/article/30314

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