EU Document Transparency: the real Problem is Seventy years old!

Do politicians like transparency? Do cats like rain?

They prefer to stay inside, behind closed doors. 

Then they hide the papers.

The most important papers are in fact treaties that have been hidden for seventy years. 

Seventy years!

What should citizens do about it? 

Complain about missing papers? A treaty engaging governments to open government is some extraordinary piece of paper, like no other.

 "Access to Documents: what next?" That was the theme of the 15 November conference was organised on  by the European Ombudsman, Mrs Emily O'Reilly. 

The conference was told:

"The EU institutions are obliged to keep records of documents relevant to their work and any EU citizen can request to view them. This right is enshrined in EU law but Regulation 1049/2001 is now 20 years old. New technologies, as well as changing expectations about the transparency of public administrations, mean it is time to discuss the future of the EU’s access to documents rules.

Transparency and access to documents inquiries account for around one quarter of the Ombudsman’s inquiries each year. There is a fixed timetable in the procedure for requesting documents, but are there too many delays in the system? While institutions have the right to refuse access to documents for certain specific reasons, are these exemptions applied too readily?"

Seventy Years of decline

The European institutions have been around for 70 years since the Treaty of Paris was signed on 18 April 1951. That treaty had a very powerful way both to collect information about the first European Single Market. It also knew how to protect the privacy of enterprises, the trade unions and the consumers. 

Schuman was no dreamer about bureaucracies. He wrote that a badly run bureaucracy, a technocracy was the greatest danger to democracy. How do you fight an out-of-control technocracy? Transparency. He therefore built in protection of information and information sources and also provided the means to make the most important information available to the citizens.

When the United Nations wanted to organise its global information network, it called on Schuman to write a plan for them.

So why is the Democratic Deficit and maladministration such a problem today?

Blocked at Birth

Let's be clear about the origin of this problem. Let's also understand why the office of Ombudsman was invented four decades after the birth of the European Community.

The European Community was designed as an open democratic system: 

• the Assembly was to hold open debates, 
• the Consultative Committees and, 
• Yes, the Council of Ministers too! 

Everything was supposed to be open to the public and the press. The principles were clearly written in the original treaties signed and sealed on 18 April 1951. 

Declaration of Interdependence

The key document was the Charter of the Community. It described how all citizens and civil organisations have the right to demand open government so that they can see, investigate and criticise each and every institution. This contrasted them with the so-called People's Democracies of the Soviet bloc. There the politburo met behind closed doors, issued its laws, stopped citizens from criticising the Party and forbade any other ideology but atheistic Communism. 

The Charter Treaty is the key document focusing on the right that will stop the EU becoming the European equivalent of the Soviet-style People's Democracy run by a politburo.

What distinguishes an autocracy from a democracy? The citizens' right to choose. With this power they can replace the so-called representatives who preferred to act as self-serving autocrats. 

The first act of the politicians was to hide or bury the Charter of the Community! This treaty was originally called the Joint Declaration of the European Community. Robert Schuman called it the Charter of the Community. It has also been called the Declaration of Inter-Dependence, reflecting the founding freedoms of the United States of America. 

The Commission has promised many times to publish this and the founding documents. It failed to deliver. Their original reluctance to publish it has led to the slippery slope of the Democratic Deficit. That has got worse and worse as one error was compounded by subsequent political compromises, not to say corruption.  

Consequences

Without the Charter and the applications of its principles, the European Commission became what Mrs Thatcher called in 1990 "an undemocratic politburo." This was just after the liberation of the Central and Eastern Europe from the Soviet Bloc. 'We are trying to get Eastern Europe to accept democratic standards and here we are recreating our own politburo,' she said. 

She was not alone, either in the UK or on the Continent.  

Generations of European democrats would not abandon the fundamental principles of impartiality and transparency. 

They made sure that it was written down -- even in the politicians' own Lisbon Treaty. Its articles say that meetings on the Council should be as open as those in the European Parliament. 

That still has not happened.

The doors of the Council of Ministers are slammed shut to the public and the press. 

The Law says politicians have to agree to open sessions whenever they

• consider
• deliberate, or
• take a common position of legislation proposed by the European Commission. 

That means practically all the time except possibly for discussions on security.

How will they be opened again? All the politicians in the Council have to agree that they should obey the treaty they signed up for.

Politicians are as difficult to herd as a clutter of cats.  But it takes only one brave, honest politician to declare and insist that the ministers have to obey the Treaty and act to open the doors.  

But even before the Lisbon Treaty, the Democratic Deficit and the closed door autocracy of the Council had stoked public frustrations, not to mention fury. What would the politicians do about it? How could they divert public opinion?

By the year 2000, the European Community system had been blatantly deformed into a politicians' cartel. People openly complained that the Commission was developing characteristics of Soviet politburo secrecy. The newly liberated countries of central and eastern Europe wanted none of that. 

So the politicians instead of applying the original treaties, decided to borrow the idea of Ombudsman from the Scandinavian countries. This would give the complainants the illusion of access. It was a veneer to cover the real problem.  It limited citizen's intrusion into their political games.  It diverted their energy into a process of fighting the bureaucracy to release documents rather than giving citizens their proper powers.

Illusion, no substance. False promises of action to publish responsibly. And far from the original basis of open democracy, full public and press access to meetings.

The excuses

What of demands for the publication of the real documents of people power from 1951? The Commission has over the years come up with a long list of excuses. 

They denied knowledge of the Charter of the Community!

Figure that out. The Commission declares that it is 'Guardian of the Treaties'. How then does the Commission not know where the treaties are?

Here is the signature page of the Charter Treaty, the Joint Declaration, signed and sealed as part of the founding Treaty of Paris.

It is signed the same day as the European Coal and Steel Treaty with its other annexes and protocols. It is signed by the same plenipotentiary ministers of Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg, with two ministers from Belgium and the Netherlands. 

Its powers are described in the early legal literature and books on the Community, including those of Robert Schuman, Paul Reuter (who drafted much of the treaties) and others like Walter Hallstein, later president of the European Economic community. 

The Commission said they could not find it in their archives! Of course not. The last article of the ECSC treaty says the originals are kept at the French Foreign Ministry in Paris. A decade ago I wrote and obtained a copy. Why couldn't the 'Guardian of the Treaties'? 

What sort of incompetence is that?

The time for excuses is over. The governments, all organised civil society and individuals including the Ombudsman should insist that citizens have their rights recognized by the politicians.

The Charter of the Community must be published in the Official Journal! 

     

EU leaders pledge to publish Founding Fathers' Democracy Documents, for the first time in 70 years!

Wow! 

For the first time in more than half a century our democratic leaders have promised to publish the documents that reveal how Europeans got their democracy. They show how and why Europeans did not fight another war amongst themselves after WW2. In the course of two millennia Europeans would normally have fought a couple of wars in this last three-quarters of a century.

Now the public should get to know how that carnage was stopped. Thank you politicians! A little late but still welcome.

Emerging victorious from the world war with Hitler’s Nazism and facing a Cold War stand-off with Stalin’s Marxist Socialism, the Founding Fathers of Europe left no doubt about how to build Europe in peace. They wanted a secure democracy, not autocracy.

Documents on how Europeans should develop their democracy were signed and sealed 70 years ago. These are perhaps the most important documents of modern times.

Astoundingly the European institutions have NEVER published some of these vital documents.

Now they will be!

The question of the public’s right to know what the Founding Fathers said about Democracy was raised before leaders of the European Commission, Council and Parliament. The date? The day after the 70th anniversary of the signature of the Founding document initiating the European Community on 18 April 1951. That major anniversary, by any account the key date in European history, was almost entirely forgotten and not celebrated by the politicians.

As if by accident, some politicians held a press conference right after the date that allowed them to meet in peace in Brussels.

On 19 April 2021, leaders from three of the five originating institutions spoke about a Conference on the Future of Europe. The question was put baldly about the long, long cover-up.

Success! They all pledged that they would publish these documents… and more. Guy Verhofstadt of the Parliament, Dubrovka Šuica of the European Commission and Ana Paula Zacarias, Portuguese Secretary of State representing the Council were launching a multi-lingual platform so that citizens could debate the Future of Europe. A major conference will open on 9 May. They also said that they would publish – for the first time – the full text of the Schuman Declaration of 9 May 1950.

That too has never been published. Instead the European Commission has published a shorter document called the Schuman Proposal and misleadingly called it the Schuman Declaration.

 

The Proposal is the legal instrument of the French government, agreed in Cabinet, that invited the other countries of Europe to join together to form a European Community of Coal and Steel. It made clear they would go to war no more.

 

The Declaration is the speech of Robert Schuman, the French Foreign Minister, to the world’s press that includes this proposal but also describes exactly how momentous and unprecedented this move is in European history. It describes the breadth of the action to be undertaken.

Following this Declaration, six countries sent their best experts in law, government and economics to design a treaty to implement the Proposal. That massive work, changing the destiny of Europe forever, was completed in a remarkably short period of less than a year.

On 18 April 1951, six foreign ministers with plenipotentiary power of their governments signed not one but two documents.

The first was the Treaty of Paris that encapsulated the legal provisions of the European Community and described the five institutions that would manage it, democratically, economically and legally.

The second document is of even more lasting importance. Schuman called it the Charter of the Community, reflecting the eternal principles of human freedom of the British Magna Carta. It has been called the Declaration of Inter-Dependence, reflecting the founding American Declaration of Independence that defined separation from British tyrannical (non-democratic) rule from afar.

The European Community Declaration describes the principles by which democratic nations should join together in a Community. It also describes which nations are unfit to join a democratic grouping of fully working democracies. The Founding Fathers had in mind the fraudulent ‘People’s Democracies’ of the Soviet bloc that did not allow freedom of assembly and thought or the freedom of religion. They also wished to exclude, for the moment until changes were made, Spain and Portugal then under dictatorships.

All these historical documents will be soon available for the public, the press, academics and politicians. The representatives of the three institutions, Council, Commission and Parliament, were also asked to provide a full analysis of how the Founding Fathers’ concepts of European democracy compares with the system we have today.

 

• The original system described how Parliamentary elections should take place under a single statute across all Member States at once.
• Elections should also be held in the Consultative Committee representing organised civil society. Today two consultative committees, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions do not hold elections. Their membership is decided behind the closed doors of the Council. Organised civil society – enterprises, trades unions, consumers in their respective European associations – would have decisive powers in creating European legislation. A fully active Committee of the Regions might have avoided the economic and political disaster of Brexit.
• The European Commission was originally decided by the Member States after each State had nominated a candidate that they considered to be the most impartial and experienced person available. The other States and the public were able to criticise and eliminate any candidate that they thought was beholden to a lobby, an interest group or a political party.

 

While the original treaty was passed with the full consent of the European people, under the watchful eye of the Council of Europe and its Convention of Human Rights, that has not always been the case of the treaties that followed. As Mr Verhofstadt pointed out, the Constitutional Treaty and the present Lisbon Treaty were both rejected in popular referendums in a number of countries.

With the Founding Fathers’ original documents at hand on how to build European Democracy on a solid footing, the debate on the Future of Europe should be able to have an in-depth debate about how Europeans wish to govern themselves.

The full text of the Schuman Declaration is at https://schuman.info/9May1950.htm

The full text of the Declaration of Interdependence / European Charter is at https://schuman.info/EuropeDeclaration.htm

OFFICIAL: The European Commission REFUSES to publish its foundational Schuman Declaration and the Declaration of Interdependence

How many documents are archived for the public on the European Union website?  There were on 7 May 2010 a total of 369,224 documents on the website www.europa.eu.

Question: Which two documents does the Council and the Commission REFUSE to publish?

Answer: The most important documents of all -- the two documents that reveal the ORIGIN and the PURPOSE of the European Commission and the European Council, how European democracy should work and what it means for the future. In fact the European authorities BANNED the documents which are most vital to understand the origin of Europe as it is today and about its future.

On 30 November 2009, I wrote to President Barroso of the Commission, all members of the European Commission.

Dear President Barroso and Commissioners,
Congratulations on your new positions. During the coming months, the 60th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration will take place on 9 May 2010. I hope that the entire Commission will give great thought to the preparations for this major event. The Member States are living through the longest period of peace in more than 2000 years of European history. We are faced with global challenges of the greatest dimension. Europe has to set the highest moral example as it did by creating a Community of peace.

Yet for the last decade or more I have asked the Commission's information services to communicate in publications and on the web the foundational documents of Europe. This includes the FULL text of the Schuman Declaration of 9 May 1950 and the Europe Declaration made and signed by all founding fathers on 18 April 1951 after the signing of Europe's founding treaty. This Declaration of Inter-Dependence is equivalent in importance to America's Declaration of Independence. I have never seen a publication of the Commission where this is printed. Why not?

In this regard, I am enclosing a copy of my latest letter to the Commission's Communications services, who have not yet replied to my August request to publish these foundational documents. I hope that the first thing in office will be for you to publish "the real foundation of Europe" -- to quote from the Declaration at www.schuman.info/EuropeDeclaration.htm

My best wishes for your term in office to build supranational democracy.

On 6 January 2010, I received a reply on behalf of President Barroso and the Commissioners from the Director General of the Communication DG. The Director General says that the Commission and its website DOES publish the full text of the Schuman Declaration.

This is not true. If the Commission does not know what exactly is the Schuman Declaration, if the multiple thousands of officials have not brought this to the attention of their bosses, then the Communication Directorate General  and the Commissioners have not yet got to Square One of Communications.

The Communication DG is one of the largest services in the Commission. The operation runs many sections such as the thousands of staff around the world in the Commission Representations. They provide information to the world's 6 1/2 billion people about what the European Union is, how it was created and why it is important  for the entire globe. The heads of the offices now sport the title of Ambassador, for example, Ambassador of the EU to the United States in Washington.

It also has services to communicate with 'the citizens'. It has its own public opinion polling operation called Eurobarometer. And to be sure that the officials have adequate means to speak for Europe, it provides high tech infrastructure worldwide and 'professional' training for the officials about how to communicate Europe. WHAT on earth is the training service teaching the officials?

It has a system to reply to citizens' inquiries called Europe Direct. And to keep in touch what the press and media are saying it has services on Media Monitoring and then Media Analysis. Its Spokesperson's group is answerable directly to President Barroso. It holds daily press conferences broadcast worldwide on digital TV. Besides that it gives 'off-the-record' briefings to the thousands of accredited journalists in Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg.

On top of that there are services for Research and Speech-writing. The Commissioners should say something that is true, in fact nothing but the truth. It has services for Promotions and Strategy. So why haven't any of these very clever, well-educated and analytical people come across the real origin of the European Community??! Why hasn't any of the thousands of these communications specialists said: "We haven't really EVER published the main FOUNDATIONAL DECLARATIONS of Europe"? Haven't the officials told their hierarchical chiefs: 'The best way to promote Europe is to tell the truth? It is the best strategy because if we get found out telling falsehoods, we will lose any remaining confidence and public trust we may have.' Why have none of the Commissioners explained the founding fathers' concept of European Democracy?

And of course none of these communications experts has produced a document giving Robert Schuman's own explanation of the Schuman Proposal. He should have known best. He managed to get French Government approval for this revolutionary measure. He did it by democratic debate in Parliament, in public meetings and with his fellow ministers. He did it over a period of years when he was Prime Minister and when he was the Foreign Minister. He explained it to the French public on a radio broadcast on 9 May 1950.

Well before this he had explained what is meant by a supranational Community and European Democracy in many speeches in years before the 1950 Declaration. He gave speeches at the United Nations in 1948 and 1949, and major speeches in Strasbourg, London, Brussels and in North America about the principles of supranational democracy. All these speeches were BEFORE 9 May 1950. And he gave scores of speeches afterwards. He was known as the Pilgrim of Europe because he went from town to town, city to city giving many speeches. Thus he explained both before and after 1950 what the new foundation of European democracy was and how it would work.

What does the Commission explain? Nothing.

For the Founding Fathers the Declaration of Inter-dependence of 18 April 1951 was of the same importance as the founding document of the United States of America, the Declaration of Independence. In fact it was more important because it would help stop World Suicide.The leaders of all the founder States of Europe signed the document saying that 'In signing the treaty founding the European Community for Coal and Steel Community, a community of 160 million Europeans, the contracting parties give proof of their determination to call into life the first supranational institution, and consequently create the TRUE FOUNDATION for an organized Europe.'

Of all the 369,224 documents on www.europa.eu would not a NORMAL person think that this was the most essential document to provide for the public? It starts by underlining, in the most authoritative way possible, the plenipotentiary powers of the signatures of the founding fathers acting in the name of the Six royal and presidential Heads of State:

Considering  that world peace can only be safeguarded by creative efforts commensurate with the dangers threatening it;

Convinced that the contribution that an organized and invigorated Europe can bring to civilization is indispensable to the maintenance of peaceful relations;

Conscious that Europe will not be constructed except by concrete achievements establishing first of all the reality of partnership, and by the establishment of common bases for economic development;

Anxious to cooperate through the expansion of their primary products in raising the standard of living and in progressing in works of peace;

Resolved to transform their age-long rivalry through the unification of their essential interests, and, by the inauguration of an economic Community, to assemble the initial basis for a broader and deeper Community of peoples who had for centuries been opposed in bloody conflicts, and to set the foundations of institutions capable of providing a direction to a destiny that is henceforward shared,

Have decided to create a European  Coal and Steel Community.

The European Commission -- who owe their very existent to this Declaration --  OFFICIALLY refuse to publish it, the foundational Declaration that provided Europeans with the longest period of peace ever known in Europe's history!

Here is the reply of President Barroso and his colleagues from the Communications Director General.

8 January 2010

Subject: Europe's foundational Declaration of Inter-dependence

Thank you for your message of 30 November 2009, which you addressed to president Barroso as well as several members of the current and incoming European Commission. The President asked me to reply on his behalf.

We publish general information on the history of the EU on our website and occasionally in brochures. Our site http://europa.eu/abc/history/index_en.htm contains an overview of the key historical moments to which you rightly attach great importance, including the signature3 of the Treaty fo Paris on 18 April 1951. The site also contains the full text of the Schuman declaration, and has short overviews of the lives and contributions of our key founding figures.

In addition to archives and sites for specialists, declarations such as the one of Inter-Dependence can be found on the website "European navigator" (www.ena.lu). This site is not managed by the EU institutions, but we often recommend it in our communication work as a useful service that provides access to documents about EU history to wider circles that history experts.

Every year Members of the European Commission, DG Communication and its Representations in the Members States celebrate the 9th May. This year these celebrations will also commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the Schuman declaration, in addition to offering a moment of reflection on the future of the European Union.

Yours sincerely, etc

If you check on the site Europa.eu you will find that neither the FULL text of the Schuman Declaration or the Declaration of Inter-dependence-- the founding documents of the EU -- is published. The site referred to, when it is working, translates the key term for Community by 'pool'!! That Gaullist term is a derisory approach to democracy. The censorship of the Commission shows utter contempt to democracy. It acts as if it were still a Gaullist-dominated instrument of French policy.

In a world of open communications, no government, nor any international organization can block the truth. If all the Commissioners unite to block the key Declarations that say Europeans must be FREE TO CHOOSE, then other means will publish these foundational Declarations. They can, for example be found on www.schuman.info, which was created more than ten years ago precisely because of this neo-Gaullist censorship. I hope many other electronic sites and publications will make these key documents well-known to counter the Commission's and the Council's anti-democratic policies.

In Europa's section on Democracy Dialogue Debate you will find the page CLOSED with the stamp:

This site has been ARCHIVED on 28/2/2010.

The Dialogue of the deaf is over. Have the ANTI-Communicators archived the Democracy Debate? Dream on!