MOSCOW, October 31 (RIA Novosti) — The new European Commission must attach greater importance to transparency and openness in EU enlargement negotiations, Transparency International said Friday.
"On 1 November the new European Commission will officially commence its work for a five year term. The new college of 27 commissioners, led by President Jean Claude Junker, has committed to place transparency at the top of its agenda. The commission should make sure that its big talk about transparency and openness also applies to enlargement negotiations with the candidate and potential candidate countries," the organization said in a statement published on its website.
According to Transparency International, EU enlargement remains a major tool for boosting anti-corruption and democratic reforms in the post-war Western Balkan states, despite statements that no country will enter the union in the upcoming five-year term of the Commission. This, the organization stated, is fraught with past scenarios in which accession negotiations were accompanied with secrecy.
The organization pointed out that the process of Croatia's entry into the EU was marked by transparency issues not allowing the public to take part and oversee the process. It also said that the documents the European Commission and the Council published on the accession process "were not proactively disclosed."
Addressing EU's accession negotiations with Serbia, Transparency International noted that national stakeholders do not have the opportunity to assess the credibility of EU judgments on anti-corruption legislation since these judgments are mainly in the form of opinions and are never published.
"… the European Commission must disclose all key documents for accession negotiations, such as screening reports, translations of the EU acquis and opening and closing benchmarks. These documents must be published on the websites of the DG Enlargement and the relevant EU Delegations. In addition, the European Commission must make public its opinions on specific pieces of legislation as well as ensure proper consultation with the civil society in the process of formulating those opinions," the statement said.
The organization additionally noted that transparency and meaningful public participation are requisite criteria for quality of and trust in the accession processes.
