Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-05-13-Speech-1-031"
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"en.20020513.3.1-031"2
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"Mr President, in the discussion on the topic of democratic deficiency in Europe, transparency is one of the crucial concepts. The European population has an image of a non-transparent and undemocratic Europe, where decisions are taken behind closed doors. With the establishment of the European Convention, a very important step was recently taken towards an open and democratic Europe, partly thanks to the open dialogue which that forum enters into with organisations from civil society. It is hoped that the Heads of Government will take the Convention’s recommendations seriously at the forthcoming IGC, and that a break can be made with a long tradition of backroom politics when treaties are established. After all, we want to move towards a transparent form of European decision-making.
Access to documents forms an essential part of this transparency. Indeed, the exchange of information is the driving force behind the public debate in the media, public control and contributions by public organisations. This is why we, as the European Parliament, have been fighting for some time for public access to documents – not only documents from the European Parliament, but also from the Council and the Commission. My fellow MEP, Mr Cashman, in tandem with Mrs Maij-Weggen, has done a great deal of sterling work on this during a previous phase, and we are now in the follow-up phase. It is important to continue this fight until those documents of the European institutions which are currently still considered non-public are available to those who are affected by them or those who are simply interested in them.
Mrs Maij-Weggen was right to refer to a number of aspects surrounding the Solana decision which have not yet been translated effectively into a wholesale replacement. She rightly pointed out that we want to extend the list to include a number of aspects, such as the attendance list, and that we do not want any restrictions, and we support her in this. In addition, the idea to lay down a directive – probably by adopting the minimum approach, for subsidiarity must be recognised as such and each country is to define this for themselves, so that each citizen in their own country has a minimum level of certainty with regard to access to documents – could be a very useful contribution. At the same time, we know that the Council is still finding it very hard to take its legislative decisions in public, and this would fit in very well with this continued struggle.
I am speaking at a time when we in Europe should all be acutely aware of the importance and power of our democracy, but also of its vulnerability. We must vigorously respond to the anti-European currents which are pervading many countries, and we must do so with one voice. This is only possible, however, if – for a change – we opt for actually reducing the distance between ourselves and our electorate. The citizen must be informed more quickly and more comprehensively of legislation that applies to them, particularly the entry into force of legislation, so that their interests can be taken into consideration in good time. For example, I would suggest placing adverts in major newspapers in every country, in which the citizen is informed in clear terms of the significance a decision has for them, and which provides them with information on where they can express their protests. What will actually help the European project and our work as parliamentarians along is not only information and documents that are available passively and remain within the circle of experts, but a European citizen who is informed directly and pro-actively.
I would thank Maij-Weggen for her contribution, and I look forward to a fruitful cooperation, also in the follow-up phase on this score of providing information to citizens across Europe."@en1
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