European Parliament must conduct negotiations transparently

In a landmark ruling, the European Court of Justice has decided that the European Parliament must publish on request the negotiation documents for trilogues between the European Parliament, the Council and the European Commission. The "four-column" texts, which set out the positions of the Council, the Parliament and the Commission and the compromise proposals, have so far been kept private.

Greens/EFA MEP Heidi Hautala comments:

"This is a great victory for those who have campaigned for an end to the restricted access to the documents used in writing EU law. Citizens have a right to be able to follow and scrutinise the negotiations for the laws that govern them. The European Parliament must now accept that these documents must be treated the same as other ordinary legislative documents. This parliament was created to protect and promote the rights of European citizens. To fulfil these goals, the European Parliament must refrain from appealing against this judgment and should uphold it in full. Rather than waiting for requests to come in, the EU institutions should proactively publish these documents to show their commitment to transparency and democratic scrutiny."