Transparency and Participation in the Face of Scientific Uncertainty: Concluding Remarks

Abstract

Openness of decision-making and policy-shaping activities is a fundamental tenet of the European integration project. Article 1 TEU expressly defines the European Union (EU) as a Union in which “decisions are taken as openly as possible”.1 Openness, and its corollary principles of transparency and participation, are essential parts of the EU’s constitutional commitments to democratic principles of representative and participatory democracy.2 According to Article 11 TEU, the institutions shall give citizens and representative associations the opportunity to voice and publicly exchange their views in all areas of Union action. Citizen participation is, however, possible only where transparency and access to information are ensured to the public, being through access to documents or publication of information. Thus, Article 15 TFEU clearly establishes “a right of access to documents of the Union’s institutions, bodies, offices and agencies, whatever their medium” – a right later enshrined also in Article 42 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Such fundamental commitments to transparency and participation apply to legislative3 as well as to administrative activities.4 The benefits of decision-making procedures based on an open and transparent dialogue with citizens are widely recognised in the literature, which connects them to aspects relating to input-, throughput-5 and output-orientated legitimacy.6 Transparency, in particular,