EU News
 Printable version
|
EU decision-making needs to be more transparent
The government is committed to greater transparency in the EU’s decision-making process. Its goal is to increase public support for the European Union. On 1 March the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bert Koenders, sent a letter to the Dutch House of Representatives outlining the initiatives being taken to achieve this.
A transparent European Union requires a joint effort from EU institutions and member states. An important part of this involves implementing the interinstitutional agreement on Better Lawmaking. In this agreement the EU institutions also agreed on a number of key principles concerning transparency, for example the establishment of a common database, a portal that provides easy access to the information and documents of EU institutions, or a register of delegated acts. In June the General Affairs Council (GAC) will examine how to improve transparency in the EU’s decision-making process.
App Competition
The Netherlands is also hosting the first ever TransparencyCamp Europe during its EU Presidency. The first part of the event is a competition that anyone in Europe can join. Entrants must create an app that either improves transparency in EU decision-making or uses open data to improve the lives of everyday Europeans, or does both. Various Dutch embassies in Europe, including those in Brussels, Vienna, Athens and Prague, will host ‘Diplohacks’ on this competition. The second part of the event is an unconference that will be held in Amsterdam on 1 June 2016. An unconference is an unscheduled conference where participants decide the programme. The goal of the unconference is for various target groups, including open data and transparency NGOs, the IT sector, journalists, academics, politicians, government officials and start-ups, to start a dialogue on transparency in the EU.
Documents
The Netherlands Presidency: increasing transparency step by step
