This is a remarkable position for an institution which has become a byword for arrogance and unaccountability to take. In light of all this, the institutional propaganda circulated for the last two years asserting that the Amsterdam Treaty would make the EU more transparent is incorrect. In short to exclude citizens from finding out what is to be adopted in their name until after it had been agreed. The Amsterdam Treaty was intended to enshrine the right of access to documents following years of conflict especially between the Council and citizens. Let us hope that the European Parliament and those EU Member States in favour of openness will throw these proposals out.
Secrecy breeds corruption, cover-ups and the abuse of power.
Citizen and civil society have to demand that the right of access to documents is not subverted and that the spirit of the Amsterdam Treaty is followed to the letter. It is an independent group of researchers, journalists, academics, lawyers and community activists founded in 1991. Background notes 1. The joint Code of Conduct, between the Council and the Commission, was agreed in December 1993 and the Council's implementing Decision on public access to documents was adopted in the same month. These definitions established the principle that every document held by the Council could be applied for by the citizen - of course, the Council could refuse access under the allowed exceptions in Articles 4.1 and 4.2 of the current rules.