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Since 2011, the Commission and Parliament have been jointly operating a public register for interest representatives aimed at increasing the transparency and accountability of the EU decision-making process; the Council is an observer to the current scheme since 2014.

Modern Commission’s proposal for a discussion on the “Inter-institutional Agreement on a mandatory Transparency Register” was made on 28 September 2016. The proposal was aimed at strengthening the EU framework for a transparent and ethical interaction between interest representatives and the three institutions participating in the new scheme: the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the Council of the European Union.

On 15 June 2017, the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament, bringing together the EP President and political group leaders, approved the Parliament's negotiating mandate, following endorsement by an EP contact group made up of representatives of all the political groups. The EP mandate underlines the need for a strong transparency message from the three Institutions and a meaningful outcome of the negotiations.

Three main EU institutions united

Political representatives from the three main EU institutions: European Commission, Parliament and Council, exchanged views on the state of play regarding the proposal for an inter-institutional agreement on a mandatory “Transparency Register”.

These EU institutions agreed on the political importance of this issue and underlined their commitment to increase the transparency of interest representation, and thus of the EU decision-making process, through a clear and comprehensive framework for representation activities within their respective institutional autonomy.

The meeting was organised on the initiative of the Estonian Presidency of the Council. The Commission and Parliament welcomed the initiative as a positive step and indicated their readiness to start negotiations as soon as possible.

Commission first Vice-President Frans Timmermans underlined that the Commission provided full transparency regarding to lobbyists as the public had the right to know who was influencing the EU decision-making process.

He said that now it was time for the Parliament, Council and Commission to jointly agree to set up a mandatory “Transparency Register”, as proposed by the Commission.

The transparency can be achieved only if all EU actors (and decision-makers in the member states) would apply the simple principle that the Commission is already implementing: if a lobbyist is not on the Register, then he or she won't get a meeting with a Commissioner, an MEP or the Council Presidency. 

The Commission has underlined that the negotiations have to start as soon as possible.

Reference: European Commission - Statement “First tripartite political meeting ahead of Transparency Register negotiations”, in:

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_STATEMENT-17-3126_en.htm?locale=en

General public inquiries in: Europe Direct