DANISH BATTLE FOR TRANSPARENCY OF EU DECISION-MAKING

FECL 28 (October 1994)

Denmark will appeal to the European Court in an effort to get support for its demand for more transparency within the EU. The Appeal is based on the "Guardian case".

Early this year, the British daily, the Guardian, submitted formal requests for records classified secret by the European Council in spite of earlier commitments of the Council to more "open" government. Though some of the documents were made available to the Guardian, the formal request was finally rejected by the COREPER, the Committee of permanent representatives at the Council (see FECL No. 24, p.5).

Denmark is now seeking a decision by the European Court, that would legally bind the Council to act in compliance with its own Edinburgh declaration on transparency. The Danish (and Scandinavian) tradition of "open" government (see FECL No.15, pp. 6 and 7) runs counter to a long standing practice of secrecy that distinguishes executive government in leading EU-Member States and is increasingly influencing decision making within the EU.

In order to obtain better control over Danish ministers participating in binding decisions of the EU Council of Ministers, the Danish parliament has set up the so-called "Market Committee". Danish ministers must report in detail to this powerful parliamentary committee and are bound to act according to its instructions in the EU Council.

The Market Committee has repeatedly caused irritation among EU circles because of its "time-consuming" and "complicated" decision-making; but national parliaments in a number of EU Member States are showing growing interest for this Danish solution to the problem of the lack of democratic and parliamentary accountability in the EU.

The Market Committee meets every Friday. All agenda proposals for the next meetings of the EU Council of Ministers are available to its members. Ministers are then called in one by one, extensively heard and instructed.

Before voting at the Council, the Ministers of the other 11 Member States must regularly await the Danish Minister's phone call to "his" Market Committee. Without the "green light" of the Committee, he cannot vote.

It has happened that Danish Ministers transgressed the limits of the mandate of the Market Committee, but according to Steen Gade, a member of the Committee, "they had a bad time afterwards".

Gade, an MP for the Socialist Left party, is an EU-opponent. Many of the party's voters want Denmark to leave the EU, but the party is trying to legitimise membership by battling hard for more transparency in EU decision making.

Source: Dagens Nyheter, 2.10.94