Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-12-14-Speech-3-329-000"
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"en.20111214.26.3-329-000"2
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"Madam President, can I start by thanking colleagues that have worked with me on this dossier for what seems a very long time now. There may be some differences between most of us and the European People’s Party, but I am sure that we can overcome those differences in the long term.
I will put this debate in context, because it is not only about access to documents. The debate is about the pre-condition of democracy: access to documents is, according to the Charter of Fundamental Rights, fundamental to citizens, and therefore any exceptions to that right have to be narrowly defined and justified. Only through transparency can citizens participate in an informed way in the democratic process, which is even more important in the current crisis.
What we are talking about is a right that allows citizens and their representatives outside Parliament and the institutions to make sure that we are accountable: parliamentarians accountable for what we do in their name; the Commission accountable for what they do; and equally the Council of Ministers accountable, too.
As we know, meetings of the Council of Ministers currently take place behind closed doors. If we knew how our Ministers and our Prime Ministers vote in their secret meetings, we would be able to hold them to account in the national parliaments – hold them to account not on how they report but what they say in those meetings and how they vote. It would also, I believe, destroy the media myth that unpopular measures from Brussels are imposed on national governments, whereas the contrary is true. National governments have to agree.
It is also about building trust between the EU and its citizens, whereby a mixing of concepts from Member States and EU should be avoided. That is why I believe that at EU level, we should become a model for our Member States on transparency. I will use the remaining amount of my time at the end of the debate to respond to any points and to any questions that arise during the debate."@en1
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