Editorial: Access or Excess? Redefining the Boundaries of Transparency in the EU’s Decision-Making

Abstract

Over the last decades, transparency has featured prominently among the European Union’s (EU) efforts to democratize and legitimize its governance. This shift toward transparency has taken many forms and, as the contributions to this thematic issue show, these different forms have evolved significantly over time. Yet, initiatives to enhance transparency have often been blamed for limiting the efficiency of the decision-making process or leading to suboptimal policy outcomes. Consequently, the debate has shifted to whether transparency would be excessive in that it would undermine the EU’s capacity to deliver through political arrangements. This editorial presents this transparency–efficiency dilemma, which the different contributions to this thematic issue analyse further.

Keywords

• democracy
• efficiency
• european union
• throughput legitimacy
• transparency