EU brakes the stick for e-democracy – basics 3. October 2008 – 16:42 by Madarász Csaba

The European Comission has launched the Financial Tranasparency System yesterday, by Administration and Anti-Fraud Commissioner Siim Kallas. The website will making details of the beneficiaries of EU funding publicly available for the first time.

(EurActive.com)

One of the basics of working Edemocracy is transparency. But what do citizens require in relation to transparency?

By having a short outlook on the site, I could say, that maybe more, than just browsing in the year 2007, and having visible the beneficiaries.

The official news says:

The search engine “allows users to analyse and compare information on beneficiaries and policy areas more easily,” stated the EU executive. Data is organised according to criteria like the country of the beneficiary, the Commission department which awarded the funding and the amount of money concerned. Commissioner Kallas said “we have always claimed that EU programmes benefit individuals, companies and civil society across and beyond the 27 member states”. But the new website would prove this, enabling “any EU citizen to check what and when they want,” providing “a very effective form of accountability,” he added.

I am sure, that this as a first step great. But also wondering, when initiatives will come out, like it can be seen in the US, and could be grabbed by the great works of the Sunlight Foundation.

Our leaders must make stronger commitment to transparency by creating more open data structures and design better access to policy. There are great examples to know about, however, sometimes, situation which is created by different legal systems can lead to dispute, as it has happened in Sweden, last year

Tags: inenglish