Let the council have their private conversations, but don't make law that way

The case being fought out in the European Court of Justice over the transparency of proceedings in Council working groups shines a spotlight on what remains of the democratic deficit in Brussels.

It has long been a complaint that the Council of Ministers, unlike the European Parliament, meets and legislates in secret. The Lisbon treaty enshrined the obligation on the Council to meet in public, but argument rages over what that oblig...