MEPs urge EU Council to prop up transparency

To the MEPs supporting the reports, good governance in the EU requires "participation, transparency, accountability, efficiency and cohesion". They believe holding EU legislative meetings in public is of direct relevance to efforts by elected representatives to fulfil their scrutiny role, both at national and EU level. They point out that more transparency would also intensify public debate on European issues, a matter which is becoming of increasing political concern since France and the Netherlands rejected the draft EU Constitution in referendums held last year.

Efforts to increase transparency and public access to EU documents are generally well received in Brussels. However, EU insiders caution against trying to impose full transparency at all times. They say a "space for confidentiality" is essential, especially in the EU Council, to allow room to broker a deal between sometimes conflicting national views.

This view is shared by Commission Vice-President in charge of Anti-Fraud and Administrative Affairs, Siim Kallas. In an interview with EurActiv in November last year, Kallas said the line between going public and confidentiality should be drawn according to the topics being discussed. For instance, he said transparency imperatives are "absolutely different in foreign trade negotiations, which are largely covered by confidentiality. On other issues such as taxation, you can make information immediately available to the public for discussion. So where you draw the line is actually a political decision which is made on a case by case basis".