A3-0153/94

Resolution on openness in the Community

The European Parliament,

-having regard to the Commission communications of 2 December 1992 (SEC(92) 2274), 5 May 1993 (COM(93)0191 - C3-0199/93), and 2 June 1993 (COM(93)0258) on openness,

-having regard to Declaration No. 17 annexed to the Treaty on European Union,

-having regard to the Interinstitutional Declaration of 25 October 1993 on Democracy, Transparency and Subsidiarity,

-having regard to the decision taken by the General Affairs Council at its meeting of 6 December 1993,

-having regard to the report of the Committee on Institutional Affairs and the opinion of the Committee on Culture, Youth, Education and the Media (A3-0153/94),

A.whereas openness amounts first and foremost to public access to the decisions taken by the authorities of the European Union, to the preparatory or related proceedings of those authorities, and, in general, to all documents in their possession,

B.whereas openness must extend to the entire legislative decision-making process,

C.whereas openness must apply to all interest groups, whether or not operating for profit-making purposes, and to all semi-official committees involved in preparing or implementing decisions,

D.whereas the various institutions cannot be said to be sufficiently open if the Community system as a whole remains impenetrable to the public,

1.Declares that the arrangements for public access to documents set out in the Commission communications referred to above will be satisfactory provided that the proposed time-limits are observed;

2.Declares that the Commission and Parliament should cooperate more intensively with a view to compiling a single list of pressure groups, set up for profit- and non-profit-making purposes, on the understanding that the list will not imply any form of recognition or any privilege in terms of access; cooperation should be pursued on an identical footing with a view to compiling a data bank on the groups in question, giving details in particular of whether they are direct or indirect, and in the latter case of the nature of the interests they represent and the extent to which they represent them;

3.Declares that similar cooperation should be pursued with a view to ascertaining the membership and powers of the various committees consulted for the purpose of preparing and implementing decisions;

4.Declares that the Council, in its capacity as legislator, should be involved in the cooperation referred to in paragraphs 2 and 3 above;

5.Declares that the debates and votes of the legislative authorities should be held in public and, accordingly, both in the case of the Council acting as legislator, and in the case of the European Parliament, be published at rapid regular intervals; the parliamentary service responsible for press releases should be strengthened to enable it to produce an ample record of the plenary sittings, including in particular the full text of the statements made by Council and Commission representatives, political group chairmen and the rapporteurs of parliamentary committees; the records of these proceedings should be published as swiftly as possible, so that every citizen of the Union may obtain immediate information on the positions adopted at plenary sittings of the European Parliament;

6.Declares that a high-level committee of jurists should be appointed under an agreement between the Council and Parliament and given a brief to identify those provisions of the Treaties falling under the constitutive sphere, distinguishing them from those which fall under the legislative sphere; the committee should codify the provisions in the first category in order to make the Community system understandable to the citizens of the Union; the results of such codification should be forwarded to the European Council and to the European Parliament;

7.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, and the parliaments of the Member States.