One of the biggest problems with EU legislation is the fact that most of it happens behind closed doors.
The Council is the most important legislative organ of the EU, but until now, opening it to the public is the exception.
This will now change somewhat. The June 2006 European Council has decided that all legislation in the codecision procedure (like for example the software patent and the Surveillance Directive) are to be discussed in public, except if the Council decides otherwise. All public discussions are to be streamed over the Internet in all official languages and archived at least one month on the Commission website.
That still leaves lots of loopholes for politicians to hide from their citizens. It is not enough by any standard of democratic accountability.
However, it is a step in the right direction.
Posted by Karl-Friedrich Lenz at June 17, 2006 12:47 PM