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29th Mar 2024

Brussels to hammer out postponed transparency plan

  • Estonian commissioner argues the EU needs to boost its transparency to regain trust from citizens (Photo: European Commission)

Publishing details on who gets what from EU funds and who stands behind the lobbies and NGOs dealing with EU institutions will boost the bloc's transparency, Europan Commission vice-president Siim Kallas argues in a comment for EUobserver.

The EU executive is set to adopt a new "Transparency initiative" - masterminded by the Estonian commissioner - on Wednesday (9 November).

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Mr Kallas says the new policy consists of four measures: enforcing the publication of end-beneficiaries of EU funds and results of investigations by the union's anti-fraud body, OLAF, a compulsory registration system for all lobbies working with the EU and new ethical standards for EU institution and member state officials.

"European citizens have relatively little knowledge of the EU", suggests Mr Kallas, adding that their confidence in the bloc's institutions "fell significantly during the first half of 2005 to one of the lowest levels recorded since 2001".

No easy way forward

The transparency scheme was originally scheduled for adoption in late October, but was postponed at the last moment by commission president Jose Manuel Barroso.

The president's spokeswoman said the main reason for the delay was practical problems related to the newly proposed database, which would cover hundreds of thousands of recipients of EU funds.

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