European Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, welcomes the European Parliament’s strong vote of support for her recommendations to improve the transparency and accountability of EU national governments’ legislative work in Brussels.

“The lack of legislative transparency in the Council has allowed the ‘blame Brussels’ culture to endure for far too long. I hope today’s vote will help convince national governments - in this most important EU election year - to agree to make EU law-making more open, so the public can see who is really taking the decisions,” said Ms O’Reilly.

“This will require a culture change in the Council, away from old-style diplomacy where much is kept hidden, to a more open and democratic way of working. Taking no action would further damage EU democracy, as this crucial part of the EU legislative process is not open to citizens.”

“It would be unthinkable at national level for Ministers not to tell citizens their p