The goal is an open and transparent “common home”. To this end, on Wednesday 9 November, the European Commission adopted the guiding principles for a renewed strategy for the “transparency of the institutions”, to which Commissioners Wallström, Kallas, Hûbner and Fischer Boel all contributed. The main objective, during this phase of impasse of the process of integration, is to clarify “the responsibilities and procedures for the administration of European funds” and the role of the lobbies present in Brussels. “This explained the Commissioners responsible for drawing up the strategy is an essential condition for the legitimacy of all modern administrations and an important foundation of the confidence of European citizens in their public institutions”. The “strategy for transparency” is added to the green paper of 2001 on the same question, the enunciation of precise ethical rules in the statute for EU administrators and the definition of clear rules on access to EU documents. A new green paper ought to be presented on this question in 2006 “in order to increase checks on the administration of funds”; the project “forms part of a logic complementary to Plan D for democracy, dialogue and debate in Europe”.
