PEG reply Ombudsman Nov 20

Council of the European Union General Secretariat Directorate-General for Economic Affairs and Competitiveness

31 March 2021

Eurogroup transparency review 2021 Background document for the Eurogroup discussion

The present note provides background information for the discussion at the Eurogroup meeting on 16 April 2021, on the review of the current Eurogroup transparency practice. The review is planned under the Eurogroup's current work programme. The note provides a brief overview of the transparency- related actions implemented to date.

Summary

Over the years, the Eurogroup's communication has been improved significantly: ample information on the Eurogroup, its President, its work programme and its meetings has been made available to the public. Since 2012, the President of the EWG has been giving technical briefings for journalists, and since 2016, Eurogroup's agendas and preparatory documentation, including its President's letters summing up each meeting's discussions, are also published. The Eurogroup's Working Methods and work programmes have been made public documents too. The President's press remarks and records of press conferences, as well as letters and speeches are also available on the dedicated pages on the Council's website.

In September 2019, the Eurogroup agreed to a number of additional actions to further improve its communication and transparency. This included, among other things, advancing the publication of draft agendas of the Eurogroup meeting, providing, if relevant, more detailed Eurogroup summing-up letters and publishing more information about the EWG, including the dates of the EWG meetings. These actions were all implemented in 2020. The Eurogroup furthermore agreed to regularly review its transparency policy.

1. Eurogroup's transparency: standing practice

1.1. Documents Eurogroup's documents are not formal documents.

Nevertheless, following the transparency initiative of the President of the Eurogroup in March 2016, the Eurogroup now makes all documents submitted for discussion at the Eurogroup meetings public, unless they: i) are still work in progress, and/or subject to further substantial changes;

ii) contain confidential or market-sensitive information;

iii) their author (institution) objects to their publication.

They are published on dedicated Eurogroup meeting webpages and, since February 2020, are available in an online repository (the so-called 'register') to improve their accessibility and facilitate search.

1 Eurogroup's work programmes and its Working Methods are also published on the dedicated Eurogroup's webpages on the Council's website.

In addition to the preparatory documents, the Eurogroup publishes: • draft Eurogroup agendas (both non-annotated and annotated); • summing-up letters by the Eurogroup President summarizing each Eurogroup discussion; • Eurogroup statements (which are also published as press releases); • statements by the Eurogroup President (also as press releases); • letters from the Eurogroup President to the President of the Euro Summit.

1.2. Other Eurogroup-related information

The Eurogroup meeting pages also contain: • recorded press conferences given by the Eurogroup President after each meeting; • verbatim press remarks by the Eurogroup President. The Council website also contains dedicated pages explaining the role and tasks of the Eurogroup, Eurogroup President and Eurogroup Working Group. The calendar of their meetings is also made public.

All of the above-mentioned information is also available on EU Council's social media channels and for subscription by email. In addition, since 2012, before each Eurogroup meeting, the President of the Eurogroup Working Group gives an off-the-record briefing to journalists in Brussels.

2. Overview of Eurogroup transparency actions to date

February 2016: Jeroen Dijsselbloem, then President of the Eurogroup, launched a transparency initiative with the aim of making public the Eurogroup annotated agendas, summing-up letters (which serve as minutes of the Eurogroup meetings) and meeting documents.

March 2016: following the approval of the initiative by the Eurogroup, the said documents are published on the Eurogroup’s webpages (hosted on the Council’s website). The Eurogroup work programmes and its Working Methods are also published.

September 2018: at the Eurogroup meeting in Vienna, President Centeno informed ministers about his intention to review the transparency initiative adopted by the Eurogroup in 2016 and consider further improvements.

February 2019: the global think tank Transparency International published a report on the Eurogroup that contained recommendations for increased transparency and accountability.

May 2019: the European Ombudsman started a strategic initiative by sending a letter to the President of the Eurogroup asking to engage in a discussion "on the possibility of adopting a more ambitious approach to the transparency of the EWG, extending for example to the proactive publication of EWG meeting documents".

May 2019: in addition to the above initiative, the Ombudsman launched a Strategic Inquiry (OI/1/2019/MIG) with the purpose of examining how the Council and the Commission handled requests for public access to documents related to the Eurogroup, EWG, EFC and EPC since February 2016.

2 September 2019: the Eurogroup agreed on a number of communication and transparency actions, taking into account the need to preserve the confidentiality and efficiency of the Eurogroup discussions and that of its preparatory work.

November 2019: the Eurogroup President informed the Ombudsman on the Eurogroup's agreement and the effort made to implement it, taking into consideration the existing institutional constraints and requirements to preserve confidentiality.

December 2019: the Ombudsman concluded that the Eurogroup had taken steps to further improve its (and the EWG's) transparency policy and decided to close the Strategic Initiative, welcoming the President's pledge to keep the Eurogroup transparency policy under review.

The Ombudsman also adopted a Decision, concluding that the Council and the Commission had dealt properly with the relevant requests for public access to document of the Eurogroup and its preparatory bodies, and closed the Strategic Inquiry.

October 2020: the Eurogroup included the review of its transparency practice into its new work programme (until June 2021)

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