LEGAL ASPECTS OF DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT IN THE EU

Legal Aspects Of Democratic Deficit In The EU Institutions

Legal Aspects Of Democratic Deficit In The EU Institutions

Introduction:

Arguably the idea of 'transparency' in EU governance has been progressively but not completely mainstreamed since it began to creep up and onto the EU's agenda in the early 1990s. This paper considers the issue of transparency and EU governance. It begins by placing transparency in context and illustrates its use in practice. It argues that it is implicit in many of the arguments on EU reform and suggests how it may be re-conceptualised on the eve of enlargement and the reform of EU governance.

There is a lack of clarity as to the real purpose of advocating transparency in the EU. For heuristic reasons transparency will be portrayed as a multi-dimensional adventure in European integration where transparency presents challenges to: 1.the EU's structures (authority reconfiguration); 2. accountability and values (rectification of the democratic deficit); 3. accessibility (procedural gates to information); 4. vigilance and attentiveness (a listening EU), and emergent forms of e-governance.

The concept of transparency is multifaceted. It slams into the debate on the nature and contours of post-parliamentary debate about a supranational system where formal and substantive democracy is contested, as much if not more so than inside the member states. Advocacy of transparency implies that communication about ' Europe ', what the EU is 'doing' is essential to sustaining democratic governance. Without contestation, democracy dies. Making the EU open and transparent is one means to that end. The aim is therefore to begin by placing the constitutionalisation of transparency as an EU ideal and goal into its historical and political context with a view to devising a way of unpicking and re-conceptualising transparency in order to explain how and why it is used in the EU for different ends all associated with an over-arching goal of communicating to citizens as part of a process to enhance democratic governance in an enlarging EU.

The term 'transparency ' can be used in different ways, in different settings for tactical and strategic purposes to advance the cause of democratic governance. Transparency can be conceptualised as multidimensional rather than as a continuum from complete secrecy to absolute openness. The tactical use of 'transparency' relates most closely to the idea of making the EU accessible, visible and close to its citizens - initially to counter traditional scapegoating by member governments of the Commission. This converges with procedural aspects of public access to documents. The strategic use of transparency conflates it with constitutionalisation in the EU, and with normative values and ideals central to democratic governance. The 'operational' use (or denial) of transparency muddies the picture as the first two converge under pillar III (on internal security matters which often require secrecy to ensure successful prosecution of crime).

Background

Advocacy of the ideal of transparency in the EU has many sources. All imply that transparency is a remedy for some existing deficit : whether structural, procedural or ...