Brussels, 23/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - In a press release published on Monday 23 March, European Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly welcomed the European Commission's recent measures to increase the transparency of the ongoing negotiations for a free trade agreement between the EU and US (TTIP). However, she calls for further steps to be taken on transparency in lobbying.
In response to its own initiative inquiry launched at the end of July 2014, the Commission is continuing to strengthen its more proactive approach on the publication of TTIP documents, and has promised soon to publish a detailed list of documents relating to TTIP, O'Reilly states. She also hails the Commission's efforts to persuade the US of the need for increased transparency. “While more can be done in the coming months to increase public awareness of the content and implications of TTIP - and particularly when consolidated texts of EU and US positions come to being finalised - I am pleased with the way in which the Commission has further moved to build on the transparency measures already put in place”, she says.
O'Reilly nevertheless insists on her call for greater transparency on the TTIP meetings between Commission officials and the organisations representing companies, lobby groups and NGOs - as requested in her list of recommendations to the Commission last January. In its response, the Commission states that at this stage, for reasons on proportionality, it has neither the intention of publishing the agendas or minutes of these meetings, nor of extending the obligations on transparency to the levels of director, head of unit and negotiator. The Commission also supports data protection preventing publication of the names of participants in meetings without their consent, O'Reilly states. In her opinion, however, data protection must not be used as an automatic obstacle to public scrutiny of lobbying activities in the context of TTIP. “It is possible to deal with data protection concerns by informing participants when they are invited to meetings of the intention to disclose their names. This should be done in the public interest”, she states, promising her analysis of the Commission's response in the coming weeks. (Emmanuel Hagry)