Transpar(eu)ncy

Transparency and openess

Openess is about being able to see through and into the decision-making process and about having access to follow relevant meetings.

Transparency is about having adequate access to the relevant documents and databases.
Having access to documents may be direct access to the internet or in having the right to ask an institution for a document and to receive it or to have the request rejected.

Art. 15 TFEU, previously Art. 255 TEC, in the Lisbon Treaty deals with transparency and requires institutions and agencies to ”work as openly as possible”.

E-democracy

E-democracy means to use the use of ICT to support the democratic decision-making processes. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) play a major role in organizing and informing citizens in various forms of civic engagement.
ICTs are used to enhance active participation of citizens and to support the collaboration between actors for policy-making purposes within the political processes of all stages of governance. Information Communication and Technology creates open, online collaboration. This improves governmental decision-making in a number of ways.

Creative policy laboratory

creative policy lab

The idea of creative policy lab (laboratory)
is to examined countless EU programs and policies, analyzing failures and successful policies from similar fields. Foremost it acts as sort of Ideas Lab that brings together experts and thought leaders to address some of today's most pressing issues in the European Union. Transpar(eu)ncy is a creative policy la with talented experts in EU policies, journalists, lawyers, communication and ICT specialists, academia and professional experts.

Welcome to Transpar(eu)ncy

Trust in institutions is an essential aspect of governance in democratic societies. If citizens do not trust institutions, they may not respect their policy decisions. Democratic governments which enjoy a large degree of trust also tend to have higher degrees of legitimacy and policy efficacy. The issue of institutional trust is thus a central concern in the process of European integration.

Today almost a half of EU citizens (48%) tend to trust the European Parliament (EP) while 36% tend not trust it and 16% are not able to form an opinion (representin another important half of EU citizens). The siutation in terms of trust is similar regarding the European Commission. 44% of EU citizens tend to trust the European Commission, while 34% tend not to trust it and 22% are unable to express an opinion. This high level of ‘don’t know’ responses reflects that the awareness of the Commission is relatively lower to that of the European Parliament.