HELA Lunch Talk – Official Secrets and Oversight in the European Union

Does the governance of secrecy in the European Union impede its fundamental principles of democracy and fundamental rights? Based on her recent book, Dr Abazi explains the shifts in institutional practice of oversight in the European Union that disproportionately favour secrecy and the protection of classified documents while creating serious limitations to open democratic deliberations and access to justice.

Based on material from forty interviews with practitioners and other stakeholders, this book talk will also offer an understanding of the practices of official secrets and provide a critical and much-needed perspective on how parliamentary, judicial and administrative oversight institutions deal with access to classified material and the dilemma of oversight to concurrently ensure secrecy necessary for EU security policies and openness needed for constitutional checks and balances.

Lunch will be provided.

Speaker: Vigjilenca Abazi; Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, Research Coordinator at the Centre for European Research, Maastricht University.

Sponsors: RCC; Harvard European Law Association.