Transparency in European Foreign and Security Policy: Does Practice Meet the Principles?

In the on-going debate about the democratic legitimacy of EU politics, a recurring point of discussion is its alleged lack of transparency. And, in order to improve the EU’s legitimacy, transparency is repeatedly put forward as a necessary condition. When however attention turns to the particular field of European foreign and security policy (EFSP) little attention goes to transparency, although the more general question of democratic legitimacy is frequently addressed in the study of this policy. This paper aims to fill this gap by seeking a comprehensive overview of the state of EFSP transparency. Drawing on normative theory, it proposes a set of empirical criteria based on which to test EFSP transparency systematically. In the process, it addresses transparency both in formal and practical terms: starting with a discussion of the EU’s legal framework on transparency and the way it applies to the EU’s foreign and security policy, it then scrutinizes the daily practice of transparency in EFSP and the role thereby played by the different institutions. To that effect the paper assess legal rules and official norms, but also evaluates the actual accessibility of EFSP-related material by the people or their elected representatives. It hence disentangles rules and reality, but also uncovers differing attitudes towards transparency between actors of European foreign and security policy. By doing so this paper offers an improved understanding of transparency in European foreign and security policy, while also contributing to the more encompassing debate on this policy’s democratic legitimacy.