A new article in the latest issue of Politics & Governance deals with the role of transparency in interinstitutional politics. The question of transparency is widely regarded as a thermometer of the relation between the Council of the EU and the public at large. Relatively little attention however has been devoted to the implications of transparency (i.e., access for the general public) for inter-institutional information politics, even when the limited evidence suggests that the connection is considerable. The current publication asks how EU actors use Council transparency as a platform and for what reason. It approaches transparency as a policy that is developed in three arenas: the internal, the external political, and the external judicial arena. The article finds strong evidence in support of the view that the Council’s transparency policy played a central role in EU institutions’ attempt to advance their information ambitions. By strongly engaging with the issue of transparency particularly the European Parliament and its members succeeded at expanding their institutional information basis in an area where their political grip was traditionally at its weakest: the Foreign Affairs Council. Acting in turn as a bargaining chip, a political lever, or an alternative to institutional information, the Foreign Affairs Council’s transparency policy was thus clearly used to advance information agendas of oversight and legislative prerogatives.
Category: Research
News related to research on open government in and beyond the EU.
Public Access to Documents in the EU, by Leonor Rossi and Patricia Vinagre e Silva, (Oxford/Portland, Hart Publishing, 2017, ISBN 9781509905331); xxxviii + 340pp.; £49.00 hb.
Access to EU Documents: A Policy in Three Acts
On 7 February, the EU celebrated a remarkable anniversary. Exactly twenty-five years ago on that day, the Heads of State and Government (HSG) of the European Community’s then twelve Member States took the bold leap forward by signing the Maastricht Treaty. Another leap forward lay tucked away in one of the Treaty’s accompanying texts, even when the Member States’ representatives did not realise it at the time of signing. Declaration 17, attached to the Maastricht Treaty, recognised the positive relation between transparency and democracy, and professed an intention to take steps to advance such transparency. Thus began the First Act of a transformative development called Access to Documents.
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Upcoming Transparency Events
10 March – Public defence doctoral dissertation Maarten Hillebrandt, “Living Transparency. The development of access to documents in the Council of the EU and its democratic implications”, University of Amsterdam – http://acelg.uva.nl/home/components/acelg-events/acelg-events/content/folder/events/2017/03/defence-hillebrandt.html
16 March – Conference on “Transparency and Secrecy in Foreign Policy”, organized by the University of Agder, the University of Oslo, and the University of Maastricht, Kristiansand (Norway) – http://www.uia.no/en/conferences-and-seminares/transparency-and-secrecy-in-foreign-policy
10-12 August – Mini-track on “Open Government and Policy-Making in the Digital Age” at AMCIS conference, Boston (USA) – https://amcis2017.aisnet.org/submissions/track-descriptions/#toggle-id-6
6-9 September – Section on “Behind Closed Doors Re-Visited: Exploring the Transparency-Accountability-Representation Nexus” at the ECPR Annual Conference, Oslo (Norway) – https://ecpr.eu/Events/SectionDetails.aspx?SectionID=678&EventID=96
The next ECPR annual conference, held in Oslo 6-9 September, will feature a section on government transparency. Entitled “Behind Closed Doors Re-Visited: Exploring the Transparency-Accountability-Representation Nexus”, the section, chaired by dr. Guri Rosén and Anne Elizabeth Stie, includes panels on (1) the relation between transparency, representation and accountability, (2) transparency in the European Parliament, (3) parliamentary oversight, and (4) expertisation.
The panels now invite papers. More information can be found here: The next ECPR annual conference, held in Oslo 6-9 September, will feature a section on government transparency. Entitled “Behind Closed Doors Re-Visited: Exploring the Transparency-Accountability-Representation Nexus”, the section, chaired by dr. Guri Rosén and Anne Elizabeth Stie, includes panels on (1) the relation between transparency, representation and accountability, (2) transparency in the European Parliament, (3) parliamentary oversight, and (4) expertisation.
The panels now invite papers. More information can be found here.
