Increasing transparency in the European Union?

Book abstract:

'Transparency' became one of the European Union's buzzwords in the early 1990s during the negotiations that led to the Maastricht Treaty. Officials in Brussels suggested that making the EU's decision-making process more open and understandable would help to tackle the democratic deficit. It was a theme that took hold and four years after the Treaty of European Union came into force, providing citizens with the 'right of access to information', a new clause was introduced in the Treaty of Amsterdam granting citizens the right of access to documents.

This volume from EIPA's Conference Proceedings series follows up an earlier title 'Openness and Transparency in the European Union' examining the developments in the four years that have elapsed since the latter's publication. Through a series of papers, written by contributors from around Europe and from a wide number of disciplines from academics to editors to diplomats, the book achieves two aims: an analysis of the changes brought about by the new Regulation on access documents and an overview of the evolution of transparency policy.

The evolution of the transparency debate is tackled in section one of the book. It includes specific chapters focussing on the efforts of the Belgian presidency, the work of the European Ombudsman, the progress from the European Council in Maastricht in 1993 to that in Laeken in 2001, the case law of the European courts and the new regulation on access to documents.

Three different ways of increasing transparency are examined in the second section. The European Anti Fraud Office (OLAF), set up in 1999, offers one opportunity suggests one of its administrators John Burke. Websites offer another alternative according to Willy de Backer, editor of EurActiv.com, since much of the traditional EU lobbying is now carried out on the internet with the result that it is becoming more open and transparent. Finally Dennis Abbott editor of the Brussels based newspaper European Voice, calls on the media to do more noting that transparency isn't just about exposing fraud but about 'explaining how things work'.

This book succeeds in doing just that, providing a thorough overview of the transparency debate since the Treaty of Amsterdam. It will be useful reading for students of European politics, Brussels diplomats who are faced with the challenge on a daily basis and the European citizen in search of a specific piece of information.

Veerle Deckmyn is head of information, documentation and publication services at the European Institute of Public Administration in Maastricht, the Netherlands.