Civil servants
The EU institutions employ more than 30,000 civil servants who co-operate with many more civil servants from the Member States. Civil servants have a very strong role both in the national preparation process and in the EU. They effectively decide most laws behind closed doors without the presence of elected members of parliaments.
Today, about 70% of all legislation is drawn up by working groups in the Council,15% by the ambassadors in COREPER, and only 15% depends on the Council of Ministers proper.
In the EU Commission, only 2 % of the decisions are taken by the Commission proper whereas 25 % of decisions are taken by written procedure between the commissioners. The rest is resolved by single commissioners or by civil servants of the cabinets.
The Commission is currently running 3000 secret working groups and the Council accounts for 300. The European Parliament is not happy about the situation arguing that these working groups posses to much power relative to their democratic accountability.
The future
The Lisbon Treaty proposes to open all formal negotiations in Council meetings to the public. It does not include the real negotiations in the working groups.
It is decided that an EU diplomatic corps which will strengthen the EU's representation abroad shall be established. The existing 126 EU delegations will be turned into embassies.
The Lisbon Treaty has a new chapter on administrative cooperation among the Member States.
