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29th Mar 2024

EU institutions closer to single lobbyist register

  • Transparency groups are critical that the common register is not to be mandatory (Photo: EUobserver)

The EU has come one step closer to setting up a single lobby register for two of its main institutions, but the Council of Ministers, representing member states, continues to refuse to take part.

The European Parliament and European Commission on Wednesday launched a website showing each institution's list of lobbyists in a bid to make it clearer who in Brussels is trying to influence policy-making.

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The semi-step, launched ahead of the June elections to try and convince citizens of Brussels' transparency credentials, is a prelude to a full common register, or one-stop-shop, where a lobbyist registering for a pass to one institution is automatically registered for the other.

UK Liberal MEP Diana Wallis, one of the deputies working on the issue, said the common webpage "will give citizens a more comprehensive insight into who is seeking to influence decision-making at EU level."

The common register, when it is eventually set up possibly by the end of this year, will not be mandatory, although parliament says it remains committed to making it obligatory for lobbyists to register.

This is a sore point for transparency groups which say that the parliament is in effect endorsing the commission's current register which is a voluntary system.

According to Alter-EU, a pressure group on this issue, only around 20 percent of "lobbyist entities" in Brussels have registered on the commission's list.

Erik Wesselius, an Alter-EU campaigner, expressed disappointment with the new website asking "who is going to find this web page?"

"This tells the citizens nothing," he continued, pointing out that the system highlights the deficiencies in the commission's list as several lobbyists registered for the parliament do not feature on its list, such as Ebay.

He also criticised parliament for often touting that those who want to lobby its MEPs have to "de facto" register for the institution to get access, when in fact visitors are able to get in without registering their interests using day passes, with around 80,000 of these granted last year, although largely for visitors' groups.

Work on the common register is to recommence "as early as possible in the next parliamentary term." The register is to have a common code of conduct and a common monitoring and complaints system.

A spokesperson for transparency commissioner Siim Kallas said the commission and parliament "strongly regretted" that the council was not onboard and that they would continue to pressure it to take part.

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