Representatives of the Council of the EU, the European Commission and the European Parliament agreed on 4 April to conclude negotiations to reach an agreement on the transparency register.
"Two and a half years after the Commission has presented the proposal, we regret to note that the negotiations have reached an impasse that seems insurmountable. The three institutions will not be able to reach an agreement before the end of this parliamentary term" of the European Parliament, according to a letter from the Parliament negotiators, Sylvie Guillaume (S&D, France) and Danuta Hübner (EPP, Poland), sent to the conference of Parliament group leaders.
The issue is the creation of a mandatory register (of lobbies) applicable to the three EU institutions.
The letter notes that the Commission's first vice-president, Frans Timmermans, "after having blocked the process for more than six months, ended the negotiations by refusing to participate in the last round of negotiations at the political level to agree on the outstanding issues".
Even though a technical meeting was held again on Monday 8 April, the negotiators on the transparency register failed to convene a final political meeting to close the file.
Parliament and the Council of the EU had requested a political meeting in the margins of the plenary from 25 to 28 March, but the Commission had refused. However, this was the last possible date for the Parliament, due to internal procedures to validate an interinstitutional agreement on the register.
The Commission wishes to impose on the other two institutions the model it applies, namely the obligation to meet only lobbyists registered in the transparency register. The Parliament could not, for legal reasons, apply a mandatory regime to its members. It has already taken a step forward by deciding that this rule (meet only registered lobbyists) applies to rapporteurs and shadow rapporteurs. At the Council level, it was proposed that the rule should apply to ambassadors and deputy ambassadors of the current and previous rotating Council of the EU Presidency.
"It was an opportunity to have the Council of the EU in this Transparency Register. This will no longer be possible under this European Parliament mandate",one source laments. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)