Governments worldwide have introduced transparency policies and disclosure requirements, so that citizens can hold officials accountable for their actions and fulfill their role as “watchdogs” of the state. In the long term, this should improve trust in government and the efficiency of public spending and legitimize government by mitigating potential information asymmetries between citizens and the government. Therefore, if adequate mechanisms that empower citizens to increase government transparency and accountability of public officials are properly stipulated in the law, do citizens also perceive it that way? Public perceptions of decision-making processes and government activities are crucial for government policy-making because citizens are the ultimate evaluators of policy outcomes. Thus, this study examines whether institutionalized government transparency reaches citizens and positively affects citizens’ perceptions of government transparency. Using individual-level data from the European Social Survey (ESS) and country-level data from the European Public Accountability Mechanisms Dataset (EuroPAM), we analyze the impact of five accountability indicators on citizens’ perceptions of transparency in 28 European countries. Using the large-N sample data from the ESS, we control for socio-demographic variables and thus also shed light on covariates of citizens’ perceptions of transparency.