Transparency and the EU Legislator: ‘Let He Who is Without Sin Cast the First Stone’

Contrary to a deep‐rooted belief, it is argued in this article that the principle of transparency as promoted at the European level needs to be extended beyond merely the right of access to documents. Considered as a precondition for effective accountability, transparency, of which access to documents is only one component, substantiates the right of information and represents an essential element of any democratic political system. A broader definition is therefore proposed and appropriate standards are generated to assess whether the EU institutions engaged in law‐making are actually transparent. Empirical evidence shows that the principle of transparency is inconsistently respected by the EU legislator. Whilst the Commission meets the expected levels of compliance, practice in the Council turns out to be increasingly but not yet sufficiently satisfactory. Surprisingly, arrangements in the Parliament, given the restrictions on access to its activities, the ‘misleading’ public status of its sittings and the opacity of its voting system, prove inadequate.