The seen and the unseen in legislative politics: explaining censorship in the Council of Ministers of the European Union

Abstract:

Transparency in the legislative process of the European Union (EU) is important as it relates to citizens' ability to monitor their government representatives in negotiations. This article explores a particular aspect of transparency in EU legislative politics by focusing on whether negotiation records are released in a timely fashion so as to allow the public to monitor decision-makers. It examines the determinants of this process, and provides insight into the transparency and censorship policy of the EU as it is applied on a day-to-day basis. The findings suggest that there is significant variation in the application of the commitments to legislative transparency, and this variation can be explained by considering the role of actor preferences and political institutions in driving this process. In some cases, this leads to a confounding of the public's ability to monitor negotiators.