Twenty-five years of access to documents in the Council of the EU

Before 1992, the EU’s most ‘intergovernmental’ institution was known for its pervasive diplomatic secrecy. Twenty-five years on, continuous external pressure is said to have made the Council considerably more transparent. This characterisation of a transparency-hostile Council overrun by external ‘transparency forces’ may however be too schematic. Following Meijer (2013), this article analyses the Council transparency policy as a reflexive arena consisting of different levels : strategic, cognitive, and institutional. Viewing transparency policy developments in this manner allows for a deeper understanding of the complex, fragmented and interlocking patterns by which the Council sometimes enabled, sometimes constrained attempts to advance transparency.