Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-04-03-Speech-1-136"
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"en.20060403.12.1-136"2
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".
Mr President, I would like firstly to thank the Austrian Presidency for its cooperation on this issue, and I would like in particular to thank Commissioner Wallström, who has shown considerable enthusiasm and commitment with regard to transparency and how to promote it.
The citizens and the European Parliament are asking the Council to come out into the open. The ball is in the Council’s court. Please open up your doors. We Europeans want to participate.
I would also like to mention Mr Cashman’s initiative on the regulation of public access to the institutions’ texts, a report that is parallel to this one but which moves in the same direction.
The Council currently has a credibility problem. On the one hand, the political leaders of the Member States support Article 1.2 of the Treaty on European Union, and they have signed the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, which states that the Council’s decisions must be taken as transparently, as openly, and as close to the citizens as possible.
The reality is very different, however. The Council refuses to open up its legislative meetings to public and media scrutiny. The European Ombudsman is right to say that we are dealing with a case of maladministration, concluding that the Council has not given a significant valid reason not to open up the doors to its discussions.
In order to increase the ordinary citizens’ interest in and commitment to the European Union, and in view of the current constitutional crisis, Europe needs to take courageous and imaginative steps to bring European issues closer to everyone. It must start by opening up its doors to public debate; the Council does not want to do so, however. If millions of Europeans were able to watch the ministers on the television openly discussing European issues such as the energy crisis, the services Directive, the retention of personal data or stem cell research, we could awaken much more interest in European issues and we could put an end to the lethargy of millions of Europeans who show very little interest in European affairs. Public opinion is caught up in strictly national debates.
This report adopted by the Committee on Petitions fully supports the recommendation of the European Ombudsman, who has taken the view that the principle of transparency should be applied not just to the discussions of the Council, but to all cases in which the European Parliament is involved, including consultations and issues relating to individual rights and freedoms and those included in the third pillar.
In October, the European Ombudsman published a report calling upon the Council to review its refusal to meet publicly when taking decisions of a legislative nature. To this end, the Ombudsman asked the Council to change its Rules of Procedure, in order to guarantee access for the media and public opinion to its debates. Nevertheless, and despite the recommendation of the British Presidency, the Council has not taken any steps to change its Rules of Procedure in a manner that promotes transparency.
The leaders of the Member States can therefore carry on saying the opposite in Brussels to what they are saying to their voters at home. The implications of this openness that we want to see could be profound for the Council and would change its nature. The ministers would have to speak under the scrutiny of the media and under the gaze of millions of people. This would be the best way to make European democracy visible and to awaken ourselves from the current lethargy and boredom.
The Council could begin with a pilot programme, which would explain how decisions are made and the nature of the procedure to millions of people in front of the television cameras. I would like to put the following question to the Presidency-in-Office of the Council and the Commission: are you prepared to propose concrete initiatives to make transparent and open debates and decision-making in the Council possible? If not now, then when?"@en1
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