By Bruno Waterfield - 11th June 2006
Europe’s leaders are set for a summit row over measures to open up EU decision-making at councils of ministers to the public.
Foreign ministers will on Monday try to head off an embarrassing fight over transparency proposals tabled by the Austrian EU presidency.
Proposals were tabled in a bid to reconnect with citizens after the EU constitution was rejected by French and Dutch voters a year ago.
New British foreign minister Margaret Beckett has carried out a sharp U-turn on a drive to openness first mooted by the UK EU presidency last year.
Under the transparency plan, all deliberations on “co-decision” legislative acts, where the European parliament has a say, will be open “as shall the votes and the explanation of votes by council members”.
But national governments or EU ambassadors can “decide in individual cases that a given deliberation should not be open to the public”.
First deliberations on all legislative acts “which given their importance are presented orally by the commission” will be open to the public – with the same caveat as above.
Ministers will “regularly hold public debates on important issues affecting the interests of the union and its citizens”.
Debates will be decided by ministers or ambassadors “acting by qualified majority”, and the Finnish EU presidency will begin the process according to a draft document.
Negotiations between EU foreign ministers on an 18-month work programme “shall be public, as shall other council formation deliberations on their priorities”.
All public sessions will be broadcast in all languages via video-streaming with “an obligation for a recorded version to remain available for at least a month on the council’s internet site”.
But Britain is concerned that televising too much might drive negotiations out of the room, leading to horse trading in Brussels corridors.
“We feel the proposal of the Austrian presidency as drafted goes too fast, too soon,” said a UK official.
“Ms Beckett is not against transparency but the risk is that you will end up pushing the most sensitive issues into the margins.”
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