28 March 2012
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EU: European Ombudsman finds Council has given no valid reasons for continuing to legislate behind closed doors
PRESS RELEASE NO. 12/2005, 11 October 2005
Ombudsman finds Council has given no valid reasons for continuing
to legislate behind closed doors
The European Ombudsman, P. Nikiforos Diamandouros, has found
that the Council has given no valid reasons for refusing to meet
in public whenever it is acting in its legislative capacity.
The Ombudsman has forwarded this finding in a special report
to the European Parliament, with a recommendation that: "The
Council of the European Union should review its refusal to decide
to meet publicly whenever it is acting in its legislative capacity."
The Ombudsman presented this special report to Parliament's Committee
on Petitions this morning.
A special report is the Ombudsman's final recourse and is presented
only in relation to important matters, on which Parliament could
help persuade the institution or body concerned to alter its
position.
The case
The Ombudsman's inquiry into this matter followed a complaint
from German MEP, Elmar Brok, and a representative of the youth
group of the CDU (Christian Democratic Union), in which they
allege that the Council's Rules of Procedure are not in conformity
with Article 1 (2) of the Treaty on European Union (as amended
by the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1997) according to which the Council
and the other Community institutions and bodies must take decisions
as openly as possible.
The Council argued that the degree of openness of its meetings
is a political choice to be made by the Council. The Ombudsman
disagreed on the grounds that Article 1 (2) of the Treaty on
European Union applies to the Council and that although Article
207 of the EC Treaty provides for it to adopt its own Rules of
Procedure, it does not provide that the degree to which its meetings
in its legislative capacity are to be open to the public should
be regarded as a political choice and left to the discretion
of the Council.
The Council also argued that Article 1 (2) of the Treaty on European
Union merely indicated that the future Union should be as open
as possible. The Ombudsman took the view that subsequent developments
(i.e. since 1997) should also be taken into account. He pointed
out that the Council had already adopted new Rules of Procedure
in 2000 that provided for increased openness of its meetings
as a legislator. In the Ombudsman's view, the Council thus made
clear that steps to increase the transparency of its legislative
activity had to and could be taken. The adoption of these new
Rules of Procedure also confirmed that doing so was and is possible
under Community law as it presently stands.
The Ombudsman therefore concluded that the Council had failed
to submit any valid reasons as to why it should be unable to
amend its Rules of Procedure with a view to opening up the relevant
meetings to the public.
The special report is available on the Ombudsman's website at:
http://www.euro-ombudsman.eu.int/special/en/default.htm
For further information, please call Mr. Gerhard Grill, Principal
Legal Advisor; tel : 00 33 3 88 17 24 23.
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