Citizens set to see Council meetings

By Simon Taylor

Date: 24/05/06

EU leaders are set to agree to open up the majority of Council of Ministers' meetings to the public.

Under plans drawn up by the Austrian presidency, to be endorsed at the 15-16 June European Council, the entire process of debating and approving new legislation under the co-decision procedure would be open to the public and available over the internet. At present, only parts of this process - the initial debate and the final vote - are done in public.

But ministers and EU ambassadors will be able to insist that some parts of discussions are not open to the public.

UK Liberal MEP Chris Davies, who has been leading a cross-party campaign in the European Parliament for greater transparency in the Council, called the move a "step forward". He said the decision, if approved by EU leaders, would mean real change in the Council. "Once it's accepted that it's normal [that meetings are held in public], it will be controversial if meetings are then held behind closed doors," he said.

Currently almost half of all decisions taken in the Council are taken under the co-decision procedure, which gives the Parliament equal legislative powers.

The most high-profile pieces of legislation currently being decided under the co-decision procedure are the REACH chemicals directive and the directive on liberalisation of services.

As part of the package tabled by the presidency in areas of law-making not covered by the co-decision rules, first discussions on legislation will be held in public. The presidency can choose to hold later parts of the decision-making process openly, but ministers and their ambassadors can object.

The Austrians also want to get EU leaders' backing for the Council to hold open debates on the issues which are important to citizens.

Public discussions will be broadcast in all languages through video-streaming and will be stored for up to a month after the meeting on the Council's internet site.

Article reports that under plans drawn up by the Austrian Presidency of the EU, to be endorsed at the 15-16 June European Council, the entire process of debating and approving new legislation at the Council of the EU under the co-decision procedure would be open to the public and available over the internet. At the time, only parts of this process - the initial debate and the final vote - were done in public.

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