The European Parliament’s Conference of Presidents, which comprises the president of the institution and the leaders of the political groups, approved the mandate for negotiations on a transparency register for EU lobbyists when it met in Strasbourg on Thursday 15 June.
This means that negotiations among the three EU institutions (Parliament, Commission and Council) on setting up a mandatory transparency register covering all three can begin (see EUROPE 11640).
The parliamentary mandate sets a number of objectives for the talks: - persuading the Council to join the transparency register; - ensuring legal certainty and clarity; - adopting legislation that is binding upon interest representatives; - maintaining a wider definition of lobbying, covering both direct and indirect representation as well as seeking clarity on exemptions; - respecting each institution’s roles and structures; - ensuring respect for MEPs’ independent mandate; - improving the accuracy and quality of transparency register data; - providing sufficient resources (human, administrative, technical and financial) for the effective functioning of the scheme.
Involvement of member states’ permanent representations. The Parliament also wants the proposed new inter-institutional agreement to be open, on a voluntary basis, to other institutional players, such as agencies or EU countries’ permanent representations. MEPs underline that the new agreement should improve the accountability of the EU and its institutions to citizens.
The EU institutions will try reach agreement on a final text containing the new EU transparency rules for lobbyists and interest groups.
On 28 September 2016, the European Commission presented a draft inter-institutional agreement on a mandatory transparency register for lobbyists. Vice-President Sylvie Guillaume (S&D, France) and constitutional affairs committee chair Danuta Hübner (EPP, Poland) will be the Parliament’s lead negotiators on this issue.
Greens/EFA Group disappointed by mandate. Pascal Durant (Greens/EFA, France) said the mandate had been drafted “with complete lack of transparency” and that it “falls below our expectations”. He argues that MEPs are refusing to be subject to rules that they want the Council and the Commission to respect. “They are under no obligation to disclose meetings with lobbyists, including those who are not registered, or to be subject to a binding legislative footprint”, he regrets (see EUROPE 11739). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)