emily o’reilly

Greater transparency of Council legislative process, fundamental for representative democracy, says European Ombudsman

Helen Darbishire2018-11-13T10:03:04+01:00

Madrid, 13 February 2018 – Access Info today welcomed the European Ombudsman recommendation that the Council of the European Union increase transparency of its legislative process in order to guarantee citizens’ right to hold their elected representatives to account and to participate in the democratic life of the EU. Two main findings of the Ombudsman’s inquiry into transparency of the Council, to which Access Info submitted a series of proposals in December 2017, are that the Council’s systematic failure to record the names of Member States along with their positions on legislative matters constitutes maladministration, and that there is over-classification

Access Info Europe welcomes European Ombudsman investigation into excessive secrecy of “trilogues”

2018-11-13T09:46:30+01:00

Madrid, 28 May 2015 - Access Info Europe today welcomed the decision by the European Ombudsman to investigate the lack of transparency of “trilogues”, the informal and secretive negotiations between the EU’s Commission, Council and Parliament by which much future legislation is decided. In spite of their crucial role in the legislative process, trilogues are closed meetings, and there is a severe lack of access to key information such as participants, agendas, minutes or documents considered. Access Info has frequently criticised trilogues for violating the fundamental rights obligations of the EU treaties, which require that EU institutions “conduct their work