Last Wednesday, the European Ombudsman published an opinion with which she closed her own-initiative inquiry started on July 29 2014. The subject of the inquiry was dealing with requests for information and access to documents.
In short, Emily O'Reilly was looking into where the Commission could do a better job regarding the transparency of TTIP negotiations. The public consultation launched by the Ombudsman saw more than 6,000 replies.
Ms. O'Reilly concluded that the Commission should facilitate greater public access to consolidated negotiating texts and provides 10 suggestions on how to do that. The Commission did not take long to react and later on the same day Cecilia Malmström, the European Commissioner for Trade, held a conference assuring that the Commission would from now on publish legal texts and position papers related to the negotiations, together with a “Reader’s Guide”.
The documents can be found here. More files will be uploaded in February, after the next round of talks.
This can be regarded as another step in the Commission’s new strategy regarding TTIP negotiations.
Find the Commission’s press release here.