Transparency in the EU : constitutional overtones, institutional dynamics, and the escape hatch of secrecy

Abstract

Transparency is one of those rare few European institutional principles that, upon their introduction, directly stirred an intense and fundamental debate. It has at times been appraised, contested and nuanced. Part of the ‘buzz’ around transparency has exactly been the product of this apparent ambiguity, which has led it to mean different things to different people. Nonetheless, over a period of 20 years, the legal principle of transparency has come a long way, undergoing a considerable process of development and expansion. Hence, while the academic literature has for long approached EU transparency as a new and innovative legal concept, today its relatively institutionalised status no longer supports such a characterisation.