A public vote on Jean-Claude Juncker in the European Council could be a significant step for transparency in EU politics

David Cameron has asked for a public vote to be held in the European Council on the nomination of Jean-Claude Juncker as the next President of the European Commission. Sara Hagemann writes that this would be a bold step as it would challenge the tradition of ‘consensus politics’ which has dominated key decisions over European integration in the past. She argues that this should be welcomed for reasons of transparency and democratic accountability, but that the debate nevertheless requires some nuance as there are both ‘good’ and ‘bad’ kinds of transparency.