WRITTEN QUESTION P-0504/01

by Chris Davies (ELDR) to the Council

(15 February 2001)

Subject: Transparency and the Council of Ministers

When did the Council last consider proposals to make the conduct of its legislative business more transparent and less secretive, what were the proposals, and what was the outcome of the discussion?

What plan does the Presidency have to introduce greater transparency into the work of the Council and to reduce the secrecy with which it conducts its consideration of legislative proposals?

Reply

(10 July 2001)

Following the suggestions made by the Secretary-General in his Third report on the implementation of Council Decision 93/731/EC on public access to Council documents, the Council examined whether certain categories of Council documents, in particular those concerning the legislative process, could be systematically made available to the public on the Internet.

The discussions within the Council lead to the adoption by the Council on 9 April 2001 of a Decision on making certain categories of Council documents available to the public. The purpose is to put on the Internet as many Council documents as possible without waiting for requests from the public for access to those documents.

Under this Decision, which will take effect on 1 May 2001, the General Secretariat of the Council will make the following documents available to the public via the Council's Internet website (http://ue.eu.int), provided that they are not classified:

- documents not authored by the Council or a Member State, which have been made public by their author or with his agreement;

- provisional agendas of meetings of the various formations of the Council;

- any text adopted by the Council and intended to be published in the Official Journal.

Moreover, provided that they are clearly not covered by any of the exceptions laid down in Article 4 of Council Decision 93/731/EC, the General Secretariat may also make the following documents available to the public as soon as they have been circulated: provisional agendas of committees and working parties, as well as information notes, reports, progress reports and reports on the state of discussions in the Council or one of its preparatory bodies which do not reflect individual positions of delegations, excluding Legal Service opinions and contributions.

With regard to legislative documents, i.e. documents concerning the examination and adoption of a legislative act within the meaning of Article 7 of the Council's Rules of Procedure, the following categories of documents will be made available to the public:

- cover notes and copies of letters concerning legislative acts addressed to the Council by other institutions or bodies of the European Union or by a Member State;

- notes submitted to Coreper and/or to the Council for approval (I/A and A Item Notes), as well as the draft legislative acts to which they refer;

- decisions adopted by the Council during the Codecision procedure and joint texts approved by the Conciliation Committee.

Moreover, after adoption of one of the acts during the Codecision procedure or final adoption of the act concerned the General Secretariat will make available to the public any legislative documents relating to this act which were drawn up before this decision and which are not covered by any of the exceptions laid down in Article 4, paragraph 1 of Decision 93/731/EC,

such as information notes, reports, progress reports and reports on the state of discussions in the Council or in one of its preparatory bodies (outcomes of proceedings), excluding Legal Service opinions and contributions.

It should be noted that under this Decision a Member State may request the General Secretariat not to make available to the public a document emanating from that Member State.

This decision by the Council will prejudge neither the application of Council Decision 93/731/EC nor the content of the act concerning the general principles and limits governing the right of access to documents which has to be adopted pursuant to Article 255(2) of the Treaty establishing the European Community.