Brussels, 11/05/2011 (Agence Europe) - In adopting the report by Carlo Casini (EPP, Italy) in Strasbourg on Wednesday 11 May, the European Parliament (EP) gave its backing to plans to put in place a joint EP-European Commission register of lobbyists and other interest groups. The joint register is expected to be available online by June 2011. Lobbyists' contacts with MEPs will be listed in a “legislative footprint annex” to parliamentary reports. Parliament is of the opinion that all lobbyists should be required to register.
A joint register for the two institutions will enhance transparency, argue MEPs, as citizens will be able easily to find all the information on people and organisations in contact with the EU institutions. This “one-stop shop” system should also make the registration of representatives of specific interests easier.
The register will combine the existing Parliament and Commission registers, as agreed by the two institutions in November 2010. The name change from “lobby” to “transparency” register will make it easier for non-commercial organisations, such as think-tanks, churches and religious communities, to sign up.
Registration will not be compulsory under the rules agreed by Parliament and the Commission. However, the EP decided that, for lobbyists wishing to enter Parliament premises, registration will indeed be required. MEPs also call on the Council of Ministers to join the register as soon as possible and welcome the fact that the Council has indicated it will do so.
Legislative footprint and other improvements. Parliament also endorsed a proposal for a “legislative footprint annex” to reports drafted by MEPs. This annex will list all the lobbyists whom lead MEPs met while a legislative report was being drafted. The new joint register will also provide further information, such as the number of individuals involved in any activities relating to the register and any EU funding or support received by the registrant. It will also set out procedures for handling complaints and sanctions.
In a separate vote on Parliament's internal rules, MEPs decided they should update their financial declarations “as soon as changes occur” and at least once a year.
Parliament has had a lobby register since 1996 and the Commission since 2008. Parliament and the Commission set up a working group that, in November 2010, agreed on arrangements for a joint register.
Rapporteur Carlo Casini (EPP, Italy) said he was somewhat surprised at the interest raised by the proposals contained in his report: the register is “not something that strikes at the heart of corruption”. Those who seek to corrupt know where and how to do so (he was alluding in particular to attempts to corrupt MEPs). The only real instrument to tackle this problem is criminal law, according to former judge Casini. The register is more modest in aim but is a step in the right direction.
Transparency is crucial for any democratic institution, said Enikö Györi on behalf of the Council: consensus on the register and on transparency would be one way of showing citizens that their interests were being looked after. Although the Council is not directly affected by the activities of lobbyists, since it is not to the Council that they turn, it is considering making a political statement for the register to be put in place by June.
For the European Commission, Maroš Šefèoviè welcomed what he considered to be a balanced and pragmatic inter-institutional agreement. In response to a question, the commissioner said he did not think that public regional bodies should be on the register, calming the fears of some. According to the Commission, if the Council took part in the register, this would certainly help make it stronger.
All those who spoke welcomed what they considered to be, however, a first stage. The register is not yet compulsory, regretted, among others, German MEP Matthias Groote, speaking on behalf of the S&D. He felt a lasting solution to the problem would be if there was a joint, compulsory register. Recent scandals had shown the power that lobbyists can have over Parliament, said UK MEP Andrew Duff, for the ALDE Group. He, too, called for the Council, as the second legislative chamber, to be involved. In a system which ensures transparency, there was room for “smart” lobbying, which aims to inform, not to unduly influence. Ashley Fox (ECR, UK) agreed with Duff's proposal that MEPs be required to disclose the names of the lobbyists with whom they have been in contact during the drafting of a text. Around 10,000 lobbyists operate in Brussels: there is nothing unusual in that, stated German MEP Gerald Hafner, speaking for the Greens, but transparency and monitoring must be the order of the day. We have to be the first to abide by these rules, stressed Danish MEP Søren Søndergaard, for the GUE/NGL.
A number of eurosceptic MEPs tried to argue that this register was an initiative essentially in response to the cases of corruption among European parliamentarians revealed in the British press; others tried to rectify the situation, noting that a common code of conduct for interest representatives had been launched in 2008 and that the Commission had reviewed and improved it one year later, in October 2009. (L.C./L.G./transl.rt)