16 May 2017

Bloomberg: Brexit talks can't be secret, EU says in transparency push

With just over a month to go before negotiations are due to start, the bloc set out how it will make its negotiating documents public every step of the way.

The EU has produced a list of papers it will disclose throughout the negotiation with the U.K. that’s scheduled to continue until late 2018. The policy is contained in a draft seven-page document entitled “Guiding principles for transparency,” which was obtained by Bloomberg News.

“We’re prepared to have great transparency on all the negotiating documents that are to be made public,” the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, told lawmakers on Wednesday at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.

The EU’s position to a large extent reflects the reality of communicating among 27 countries and the difficulty of ensuring documents remain confidential as they fly between national capitals and different EU bodies. But committing to keeping the public informed also shows the bloc’s confidence that it already holds the upper hand before the negotiations get under way after the U.K.’s June 8 election. [...]

“Ensuring that the negotiations are conducted in a transparent manner will be one of the keys of their success,” according to the transparency document, dated May 15, that accompanies the mandate for the EU side of the coming talks. “A coherent EU approach to transparency arrangements for the negotiations should be carefully defined well ahead of the formal start of negotiations.” [...]

Full article on Bloomberg

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