Vol. 493 No. 5
29 Mr. Quinn asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he raised, at the European Council in Cardiff, Wales, the introduction of television and radio coverage of Council of Ministers' meetings; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13692/98]
In the context of a wide-ranging discussion about the future development of the European Union, the Cardiff European Council agreed on the need to bring the EU closer to people and to focus it on the issues that matter most to the European citizens. As a first step, it is intended to convene, probably in October, an informal meeting of Heads of State or Government and the President of the Commission to deepen their discussion and to examine how best to prepare for these issues to be considered at the Vienna European Council.
Television and radio coverage of Council meetings was not discussed at Cardiff. The broadcasting of Council meetings and debates is part of the wider efforts being made by the European Union in the interests of transparency and of bringing the EU closer to its people. The meeting of the European Council in Edinburgh in December 1992 approved the transmission by audiovisual means of certain meetings of the Council of Ministers, in an effort to enhance transparency, and a Council decision of May 1995 extended the practice. As the Deputy will be aware, the present practice is that the Councils policy debates on the six-monthly work programme submitted by the Presidency and, if appropriate, on the Commissions annual work programme, are retransmitted audiovisually. In addition, certain debates relating to important issues affecting the interests of the Union or significant new legislative proposals may be broadcast on television and radio.
Ireland is committed to transparency in the work of the European Union institutions and has welcomed the measures taken to date to make its decision-making processes and deliberations more open and better understood by the public.
