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Just the TTIP of the Iceberg? Dynamics and Effects of Information Leaks in EU Politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Ronny Patz
Ronny Patz*
Affiliation:
Political Systems and European Integration at LMU Munich, Germany
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Extract

“[M]any observers agree that the Commission has been ‘leaking like a sieve’”.

Leaks have become a major element of European Union politics. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) leak in early May 2016 is neither the first of its kind nor will it be the last. Transparency by leaks – or “transleakancy” as the series of publications of confidential TTIP negotiation documents has already been coined – is one element of the political game that different interest groups, governmental and non–governmental, play on both sides of the Atlantic. And yet, leaked EU documents have been shared in wider policy-networks all along, independent of whether they have received media attention or not. The difference is that leaks similar to those that we see on TTIP have reached a new level of importance. Here, themere fact of their existence makes them newsworthy. The impact of these leaks on public debates is seen as amajor risk for negotiators.

Type
Symposium on TTIP Leaks
Information
European Journal of Risk Regulation , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , June 2016 , pp. 242 - 246
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016

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