Great Expectations: Transparency of the European Commission

Today, there is broad consensus that the European Commission of the European Union needs transparency in order to function as a representative democracy. The transparency development within the Commission shows an interesting pattern, especially after Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker came into office in 2014. The current transparency debate revolves around the question to what extent the Commission has overcome opacity under the leadership of President Juncker halfway through its mandate. Advocates of transparency argue in favor of a relative increase of Commission transparency by democratic standards compared to other public institutions. A more critical account detects a more ‘captured transparency’, highlighting the loopholes and obstacles for the Commission to overcome in order to become an effective representative democracy. This work provides a detailed and multi-disciplinary examination of the questions how transparency has progressed within the Commission. An...Show moreToday, there is broad consensus that the European Commission of the European Union needs transparency in order to function as a representative democracy. The transparency development within the Commission shows an interesting pattern, especially after Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker came into office in 2014. The current transparency debate revolves around the question to what extent the Commission has overcome opacity under the leadership of President Juncker halfway through its mandate. Advocates of transparency argue in favor of a relative increase of Commission transparency by democratic standards compared to other public institutions. A more critical account detects a more ‘captured transparency’, highlighting the loopholes and obstacles for the Commission to overcome in order to become an effective representative democracy. This work provides a detailed and multi-disciplinary examination of the questions how transparency has progressed within the Commission. An examination of the transparency developments will be made of the Commission’s Directorate General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets (DG FISMA), because this department has the highest number of meetings with interest representatives and stakeholders on policy-making. The analysis that follows will establish a comprehensive framework of the relationship between the implementation of transparency measures in the Directorate General and its interpretation. Therefore, this work provides for an institutional analysis of policy change. The paper concludes that the current Commission transparency policies in place have several flaws and that it leaves room for improvement to strengthen democratic legitimacy. However, the study also shows that when change is brought about in a broad and practical form it can - on the long-term - fulfil the democratic transparency promise of President Juncker. The recommendations resulting from this research may serve as a basis for the future development of transparency measures in the area of European studies.Show less

Leiden University Student Repository

Documents

In Collections

Great Expectations: Transparency of the European Commission