Council of the
European Union
Brussels, 7 February 2020
(OR. en)
5909/20
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OUTCOME OF PROCEEDINGS
From:
General Secretariat of the Council
On:
31 January 2020
To:
Delegations
Subject:
Working Party on Information
1.
Adoption of the agenda
The WPI adopted the agenda as set out in document CM 1235/2/20 REV 2, with a new AOB
item (IPCR activation - Coronavirus).
The UK delegation did not attend the meeting.
2.
Transparency items
a)
The Croatian Presidency's priorities
The Presidency outlined its political priorities for the semester and highlighted its
attachment to "a Europe closer to its citizens" and to transparency of the EU
institutions as one of the crucial components in strengthening the democratic
legitimacy.
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Concerning legislative transparency, the Presidency announced its intention to
pursue the new practices introduced by its Finnish predecessor to proactively make
public the documents on trilogues, while for progress reports the document should be
public after their endorsement by Coreper. Building on the experience of this period
and the information collected the Council will be on a better position to assess its
practice.
The Presidency also confirmed its commitment to the transparency of its meetings
with interest groups (in line with the approach agreed by the Trio of RO/FI/HR
presidencies) and informed the WPI that a relevant page of its website is being
adapted to this purpose and should be operational within a short timeframe.
Delegations welcomed the Presidency's approach, since it will enable them to
evaluate the pilot exercise in a semester where the institutions are fully resuming
their legislative activity.
One delegations expressed the wish to continue to follow the WPI meetings by
connecting in video-conference. The rotating Presidency explained that they are not
going to continue the video-conference exercise during its Presidency. The Chair
informed the WPI that the General Secretariat of the Council (GSC) is reflecting on
the results of the test carried out in autumn 2019 and that the policy in this regard is
under constant review, the transition towards a fully digital workflow being a
gradual process.
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b)
Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001
The Commission representative:
• confirmed that, as indicated in its 2020 Work Programme circulated on
29 January 20201, the Commission will withdraw its two proposals for a
recast of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 submitted in 2008 and 2011, since
their content has become obsolete and outdated. However, it drew the WPI’s
attention to the need for modernising/supplementing the existing Regulation;
• underlined that President Von der Leyen has entrusted Vice President
Jourová with the specific portfolio on Transparency as she fully supports an
open and cooperative approach in this field;
• confirmed President Von der Leyen’s intentions to reinforce inter-
institutional cooperation, seeking agreement on policy design as well as on
key instruments such as the Transparency Register, a joint legislative portal
and the IIA on Better Law Making;
• indicated the Commission’s full support to the Council Presidencies’ efforts
to increase transparency of trilogues.
Several delegations expressed themselves in favour of a limited technical revision
("Lisbonisation") of the current Regulation.
The Chair thanked the Commission representative and delegations for the fruitful
exchange of views and indicated that the WPI stands ready to discuss further
developments on this topic.
1
COM(2020) 37 final (focus on Annex IV - Withdrawals)
https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/2020-commission-work-programme-key-
documents_en
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c)
European Ombudsman
Complaint 1069/2019/MIG - Ombudsman's Recommendation (sponsorship of
the Presidency of the Council of the European Union)
5315/20 API 9 INF 7 OMBUDS 3 JUR 26 INST 5
5476/20 API 11 INF 9 OMBUDS 4 JUR 35 INST 6
The Chair recalled the history and context of the draft Recommendation of the
Ombudsman.
Many delegations supported the possibility to issue guidance on sponsorship, in line
with the note submitted to the Working Party. Some delegations stressed that such
guidance should be general and of a non-binding nature and that any decision in this
regard should belong to each Presidency, based on a case-by-case assessment.
The Croatian Presidency announced that it had awarded a limited number of
sponsorship contracts with local business and that it will shortly publish these
contracts on its website.
Likewise, the forthcoming German Presidency informed the WPI that it had
concluded some smaller local business sponsorship contracts aiming to promote
regional interests, supporting informal regional events to be organized under the
auspices of the Presidency foreseen in the second half of 2020.
The Chair concluded by informing delegations that the GSC will prepare a draft
reply to the Ombudsman, to be submitted for consultation to WPI and thereafter for
the Coreper and Council approval. Subsequently, it will draw up a draft of the
envisaged guidelines on Presidency sponsorship.
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3.
Communication / Information policy
a)
Presidency's priorities and communication activities
-
Presentation by the Presidency
The Presidency briefed the Working Party on its priorities and communication activities.
b)
New Commission Spokesperson's service
-
Presentation by the Commission
Dana Spinant, Deputy Chief Spokesperson of the Commission presented the new
Commission Spokesperson's service.
c)
Communication strategy on Civil Protection
-
Presentation by the Commission
Petra Pereyra, Acting Head of Unit for Communication in DG ECHO, presented
the Commission's ongoing work on the communication strategy on Civil Protection.
d)
EU institutions' Open Day 2020
-
Information from the General Secretariat of the Council
Pedro Alvito, Outreach Unit, informed the Working Party about the preparations of the EU
institutions' Open Day taking place this year on 9 May and how Member States can take
part. Member States will receive shortly an invitation to participate as exhibitors and
propose additional activities to present their countries.
4.
AOB
Novel Coronavirus
- Information from the General Secretariat of the Council
In the light of the current situation regarding the novel Coronavirus and the activation of the
Integrated Political Crisis Response (IPCR) arrangements in information sharing mode as
well as of the EU civil protection mechanism, Jan Alhadeff, Head of the Civil Protection
Unit in the GSC, informed the Working Party about IPCR's Crisis Communicator's Network
activities so far.
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