 Transparency and the EU Legislator: ‘Let He Who is Without Sin Cast the First Stone’*Pierpaolo Settembri Journal of Common Market Studies, 2005, vol. 43, issue 3, 637-654 Abstract: Contrary to a deep‐rooted belief, it is argued in this article that the principle of transparency as promoted at the European level needs to be extended beyond merely the right of access to documents. Considered as a precondition for effective accountability, transparency, of which access to documents is only one component, substantiates the right of information and represents an essential element of any democratic political system. A broader definition is therefore proposed and appropriate standards are generated to assess whether the EU institutions engaged in law‐making are actually transparent. Empirical evidence shows that the principle of transparency is inconsistently respected by the EU legislator. Whilst the Commission meets the expected levels of compliance, practice in the Council turns out to be increasingly but not yet sufficiently satisfactory. Surprisingly, arrangements in the Parliament, given the restrictions on access to its activities, the ‘misleading’ public status of its sittings and the opacity of its voting system, prove inadequate. Date: 2005 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:43:y:2005:i:3:p:637-654 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Journal of Common Market Studies is currently edited by Jim Rollo and Daniel Wincott More articles in Journal of Common Market Studies from Wiley Blackwell |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.