Brussels, 30/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - European Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly brought forward proposals on Friday 30 January to make European Commission expert groups more balanced and transparent.
The Commission oversees hundreds of such advisory groups which play a crucial role in the development of EU legislation and policy. The Ombudsman calls on the Commission to establish a legally binding framework for all expert groups, including a definition of what balanced representation in different groups should look like. She also recommends measures to reduce potential conflict of interest situations and to publish more information about the work of the groups. The Commission should reply to her proposals by 30 April 2015.
O'Reilly acknowledges that, over the past few years, the Commission has done a lot to increase transparency and to promote more balanced interest representation in its expert groups. However, there is room for improvement, she says, “if we want to be sure that the public can trust and scrutinise the work of these important groups. With my proposals, I want to help the Commission to tackle this complex and challenging task”.
In May 2014, the Ombudsman started her own-initiative inquiry into the Commission's expert groups, opening a public consultation. The findings of the consultation show that “there are major deficiencies persisting with regard to the composition and transparency of Commission expert groups”, according to the letter sent by O'Reilly to Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. The main problems raised in the contributions concerned the inconsistent categorisation of organisations who participate in expert groups, the perceived imbalance in favour of corporate interests in certain groups and potential conflicts of interest of experts who participate in their personal capacity.
The Ombudsman asks the Commission to publish a call for applications for all expert groups and to create a single online portal for these calls. Furthermore, the categorisation of expert groups' members should be the same as in the transparency register (for lobbyists). Organisations and individuals who fall within the scope of the transparency register should only be allowed to participate in expert groups if they are registered.
With regard to experts appointed in their personal capacity, the Ombudsman suggests that the Commission review its conflict of interest policy, by assessing their background more carefully and by publishing detailed CVs. Furthermore, minutes of expert group meetings should be as detailed as possible.
The Ombudsman advises the Commission to use the legally binding framework for DG AGRI's civil dialogue groups as a benchmark for all expert groups. In a separate investigation, she is currently looking into whether DG AGRI is properly implementing the obligations laid down in this framework.
The Commission has already taken a number of steps to improve transparency. This the Ombudsman welcomed. According to the working methods of the new Commission, members of the Commission must not, as a rule, meet professional organisations or self-employed individuals not registered in the transparency register. In addition, since 1 December 2014, meeting agendas of commissioners, their cabinet members, as well as of directors-general, with organisations or self-employed individuals on issues relating to policy-making and implementation in the Union are made public. The revised inter-institutional agreement on the transparency register between the Commission and the European Parliament has been in operation since 1 January 2015 (in addition, the Commission has pledged to propose that registration on the transparency register be compulsory). (LC)