Following her inquiry into the transparency of legislative discussions in the preparatory bodies of the Council of the EU (the ‘Council’), the Ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly, is sending this special report to the European Parliament to seek its support on the matter.

In order for European citizens properly to exercise their democratic right to participate in the EU’s decision-making process, and hold those involved to account, legislative deliberations must be sufficiently transparent.

In order also for citizens to be able to hold their governments to account for the decisions they make on EU laws, they need to know how their governments positioned themselves during the legislative process. Making such information public would also oblige Member State governments to assume greater responsibility for this legislation and discourage them from ‘blaming Brussels’ for EU laws they themselves helped to shape and adopt.

The Ombudsman opened this strategic inquiry in March 2017. She put specific questions to the Council, launched a public consultation, and inspected legislative files of the Council.

The Ombudsman found that the Council’s current practices constitute maladministration. In particular, she criticised the Council’s failure to record systematically the identity of Member States taking positions in preparatory bodies, and the widespread practice of restricting access to legislative documents while the decision-making process is ongoing (the so-called ‘LIMITE’ marking).

On 9 February 2018, the Ombudsman made three specific recommendations and several suggestions to the Council on how to improve the transparency of its legislative process.

The Council did not reply to her recommendations and suggestions within the legally-prescribed timeline of three months.

Given the importance of the issue of legislative transparency, the Ombudsman considers it appropriate to bring the matter to the attention of the European Parliament, so as to seek its support in prevailing upon the Council to act on her recommendations and suggestions.

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