Transparency at EU gets a boost
As from 1 May this year, certain categories of Council documents will be available on the Internet. The new, more transparent approach to these documents is the result of a proposal presented by the Swedish presidency in January. The decision was approved unanimously by the Member States and was ratified by the Council of the European Union on 19 March. It will mean that thousands of documents will be available over the Internet, including agendas, protocols, summary reports and possibly preparatory documents which were used in helping Council make decisions. The only areas that will be exempt will be those documents which have secrecy exemptions, which are related to issues such as international relations and military and defence issues. The only other way the release and publication of documents can be vetoed is by a Member State in relation only to its own information, and not to general or other Member State's documents. 'Today's decision is one of the first steps towards a more transparent and accessible European Union. The fact that EU documents are made available to the general public in this way can increase the Union's democratic legitimacy in the long-term,' said Swedish minister for democratic issues, Ms Britta Lejon. The decision is an update of a previous Council decision made in 1993 (93/731) which allowed for public access to certain documents. The previous arrangement for viewing this information involved a citizen making a formal request for specific documents. This system will be scrapped for the categories covered by the decision. 'And even if the documents are not on the Internet will not necessarily mean that they will not be available to the public,' said a spokesman for the Swedish government.'