More transparency in the Council of the European Union!

As a follow-up to the previous article, the comment by Grahnlaw, one of my earlier posts, and in reference to a recent article by Grahnlaw, I would recommend reading Professor Steve Peers' article containing:

"Proposals for greater openness, transparency and democracy in the EU".

Also the article is not limited to the Council, especially relevant as a follow-up on the intransparent work of the Council of the European Union that I discussed in the last article is the following paragraph from page 3 of the text:

"Since 2006, the Council has normally held public meetings when discussing acts pursuant to the ‘co-decision’ procedure. The Treaty of Lisbon would oblige the Council to hold public meetings as regards all legislative acts, regardless of the applicable procedure. There is no need or justification for the Council to wait for the Treaty of Lisbon to enter into force – if it ever does - to extend the openness of its proceedings, since it can regulate this issue in its rules of procedure."

This is exactly what needs to be done, no matter if the Lisbon Treaty will ever enter into force: The law- and decision-making of the Council needs to be as transparent as possible, especially in a situation where its decisions have direct effects to the European citizens.

And since, as Mr Peers states, the Council has the right to decide upon more transparency on its own, it would only be recommandable that it would do so - not in 10 years, but starting from tomorrow...!