The Puzzle of Transparency Reforms in the Council of the EU

Daniel Naurin
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Daniel Naurin: PluriCourts, University of Oslo, Norway

Politics and Governance, 2017, vol. 5, issue 3, 87-90

Abstract: I argue that the transparency reforms that have been implemented in the Council of the EU in the last decades are unlikely to change the perception of the Council as a non-transparent institution. My argument is based on three distinctions: the distinction between transparency (availability of information) and publicity (spread and reception of information); between transparency in process and transparency in rationale; and between plenary and committee decision-making arenas in legislatures. While national parliaments tend to have all these features, the Council of the EU only has two (transparency in process and committee decision-making). As a consequence, publishing ever more documents and detailed minutes of committee meetings is unlikely to strengthen the descriptive legitimacy of the Council. Furthermore, I argue that the democratic transparency problem is the reverse of what is most often argued: It is not the lack of transparency that causes a democratic deficit, but the (perceived) lack of a democratic infrastructure that makes more serious transparency reforms unthinkable to government representatives.

Keywords: democratic deficit; European Union; intergovernmental negotiations; legitimacy; transparency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:poango:v5:y:2017:i:3:p:87-90

DOI: 10.17645/pag.v5i3.941

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