Without Information there is no Accountability: the European Commission, the European Council, the Council before the European Parliament. Possibilities and Limits of an Imperfect Model of Political Control

  • José María Porras Ramírez Universidad de Granada
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18543/ced-62-2020pp99-126
Keywords: duty of information, accountability, European Parliament, European Commission, European Council, Council

Abstract

In order to contribute to a more complete realization of the democratic principle at the European level, the institutions endowed with intergovernmental character and political nature that concur in the development of the governance of the Union have intensified their collaboration and exchange of information with the European Parliament, thus rendering account of their proceedings before the Chamber. However, they have done so with very unequal intensity. Thus, the European Commission has assumed this constant duty through the most diverse forms of appearance and documentary supply of data and reports, facilitating agreements and the accountability of its acts and decisions. However, this collaboration and exchange of information with the European Parliament is not observed, in equal proportion, with the Council and, above all, the European Council. This is because these institutions that, although they are also called to give an account of their actions before the Chamber, do so only under the conditions set by their respective internal regulations, a privilege that greatly decreases its reach, which is a reason for criticism and correction request.

Received: 13 December 2019
Accepted: 13 January 2020
Published online: 02 April 2020

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Author Biography

José María Porras Ramírez, Universidad de Granada
Doctor of Law, Full Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Granada and Jean Monnet Professor of European Constitutional Law. He developed his academic training at the Center for Political and Constitutional Studies in Madrid and at the Universities of Florence, Regensburg, Bayreuth and Rome (La Sapienza). He is the author of more than one hundred and twenty publications, among which should be highlighted his five monographs: «Democratic principle and royal function in the normative Constitution»; «The conflict in defense of local autonomy before the Constitutional Court»; «Religious freedom, public neutrality and cooperation with confessions in the democratic State»; «Statutory reforms and new autonomous system of sources of law»; and «Supranational integration: dimensions of multilevel protection of fundamental rights and on system of government of the European Union». He has lectured on issues of his specialty in prestigious universities around the world and participated as a speaker at more than fifty international conferences held in Europe and America. He is currently a member of the editorial board of ten international journals. And he is part of the international team that makes the systematic comment of the Treaties establishing the European Union.
Published
2020-04-02
How to Cite
Porras Ramírez, José María. 2020. “Without Information There Is No Accountability: The European Commission, the European Council, the Council before the European Parliament. Possibilities and Limits of an Imperfect Model of Political Control”. Deusto Journal of European Studies, no. 62 (April), 99-126. https://doi.org/10.18543/ced-62-2020pp99-126.
Issue
No. 62 (2020)
Section
Articles

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