After a five-year battle by Access Info Europe, Europe’s highest court has made an important ruling that will help boost transparency in the European Union: the European Court of Justice today rejected arguments by the Council of the European Union that it should be able to keep secret the identities of Member States making proposals in the context of negotiations on future EU legislation. […]
The Council of the European Union is one of three bodies that jointly run the European Union, along with the European Parliament and European Commission. Some countries wanted their names blacked out from official Council of the European Union documents because it would have revealed which of them had blocked or tried to water down proposals they were hostile to. Now that it will be possible to name and shame Member States that act in this way, they will probably be less willing to be seen objecting to important and popular measures. […]
Given the Council’s dogged resistance to even minimal transparency, that’s unlikely to happen, but at least things have started moving in the right direction.
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20131029/07211125047/european-court-justice-hands-down-big-win-transparency-europe.shtml