The European Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly | EPA/Stephanie Lecocq European Ombudsman: Council’s ‘behind-closed-doors’ approach alienates citizens EU watchdog gives body a list of ways to improve transparency.

Europe's watchdog found the Council of the European Union's lack of transparency "constitutes maladministration" and "undermines citizens’ right to hold their elected representatives to account," according to a report released Tuesday.

The report presents the findings of an inquiry into the notoriously opaque lawmaking processes of the EU body, which the European Ombudsman said "inhibit the scrutiny of draft EU legislation."

Specifically, the report criticized the Council of the EU — which consists of representatives from national governments and is responsible for coordinating EU policy — for not making the positions of individual EU countries public during discussions of draft legislation, and for consistently restricting access to documents.

“It’s almost impossible for citizens to follow the legislative discussions in the Council between national government representatives," European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly said in a release accompanying the report. "This ‘behind-closed-doors’ approach risks alienating citizens and feeding negative sentiment.”

O'Reilly added that without increased transparency by national governments, "the 'blame Brussels' culture will continue."

The Ombudsman published a list of recommendations, including adopting new rules for make legislative documents available within two years, improving the user-friendliness of the public register of documents and developing an up-to-date webpage for each ongoing legislative proposal.

The Council of the EU has until May 9 to reply.

This article was updated to correct the composition of the Council of the EU.

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