Strasbourg, 22/09/2006 (Agence Europe) - In a press release on 22 September, the European Ombudsman welcomes the efforts of the European Commission to make data on beneficiaries of EU funds more transparent. He supports the Commission's proposals in its Green Paper on the Transparency Initiative to introduce a legal obligation on Member States to disclose information on who receives EU money. Pointing out that he has received complaints about lack of transparency on beneficiaries of EU funds, Nikiforos Diamandouros says, “It is in the general interest to provide information on how EU taxpayers' money is spent. Explaining openly what the EU and Member States do in the name of the citizen makes the European Union more democratic and accessible”. The Commission Green Paper of May is an integral part of the European Transparency Initiative to make the EU and its institutions more open and responsible. The Initiative also proposes more transparency regarding the activities of lobby groups at EU level, and provides for the review of the regulation on access to information and documents of EU institutions. A number of stakeholders have suggested a role for the Ombudsman in monitoring a lobbying registration regime or code of conduct. On this subject, Mr Diamandouros said the Treaty did not give the Ombudsman the mandate to control activities of private bodies, such as interest groups.