On Tuesday 12 June, the negotiators from the three EU institutions involved in the legislative trialogues continued their debate on strengthening the EU's transparency register.
Parliament's negotiators, Vice president Sylvie Guillaume (S&D, France), the Chairperson of the constitutional affairs committee, Danuta Hübner (EPP, Poland), as well as the vice minister in charge from the Bulgarian Presidency, Monika Panayotova, and the First Vice President from the Commission, Frans Timmermans, made a joint effort towards developing a common interpretation of the key question on cross-compliance.
The objective is to reach an agreement on this theme (option of only meeting registered lobbyists) before tackling the other subjects.
The negotiators did not set out a date for a third trialogue but are hoping to complete the discussions before the end of the year. The Commission would like MEPs to be only allowed to meet lobbyists included on the register. Parliament's legal opinion stipulates that this obligation is impossible as part of an inter-institutional agreement (governing the transparency register). The negotiators will attempt to reach a legally tenable and politically acceptable solution. The Council also has binding legal restraints that prevent representations being submitted on cross-compliance (the idea would be to have voluntary approaches during the rotating Presidency of the EU). The other subjects to discuss include the management of register resources, the question of indirect lobbying (Parliament request) and the rules applicable to EU agencies. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)