Transparency and Good Governance. Evaluation and Proposals Based on Experience in the European Union and Italy

Abstract

According to a fairly general opinion, transparency and good governance shall be very strictly related. This paper critically examines, therefore, the legal framework concerning especially access to public administration’s documents in European Union law and in Italian law, where recent reforms put a very strong emphasis on the subject of transparency.
Based on the evidence that transparency (as well as democracy) obviously cannot be for free - as no legislation on “freedom of information” can automatically produce the desired change in the citizen-public relationship - it is suggested that a “responsible for transparency” be provided for. A public officer who should become the point of reference for citizens wishing to get information about political and administrative processes, but lacking the necessary competence to do it alone. His role would therefore be to turn transparency, from a magical word devoid of concrete meaning, into a tangible reality.