The European Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, has as part of an ongoing inquiry invited feedback from the public, civil society, national parliaments, and others on how the Council of the EU can make its law-making work more transparent.

This consultation asks nine questions including what measures the Council could take to make legislative documents easier to find; what difficulties are faced in trying to obtain documents linked to Council preparatory bodies; and how important is it to know the individual positions of Member States.

The Ombudsman has also written to the Council asking to inspect all documents relating to three sample legislative acts from 2016 in order to see the internal process for recording, categorising and disclosing documents as draft EU laws proceed through the Council. The files will be selected by the Council and shoul