While a recent ruling of the European Court of Justice stated that documents prepared during negotiations between the Council of Ministers, Commission, and Parliament – known as trilogues – to finalise new EU laws should be made public when requested, the S&D Group stated today that it was «pleased» that Parliament’s legal affairs committee voted not to appeal this ECJ’s ruling.
«This sends a positive message to European citizens that the EU is open in how it takes decisions. For us it is obvious that citizens have the right to know how laws that will affect them are made. We now need to use the decision of the ECJ as a basis for opening up how the EU works, to make it as transparent as possible. It will also help us highlight hypocrisy from national governments – who often say one thing in public and then do the opposite when taking a decision behind closed doors», déclared S&D Group spokesperson for the issue, Tiemo Woelken.
Photo: © European Union, 2018 / Source: EC – Audiovisual Service / Photo: Eric Vidal