Lobbies: the European Parliament passed new rules on transparency

The Rapporteur was the Italian MEP Gualtieri. In April, during the last plenary session, the final approval

The Constitutional Affairs Committee of the European Parliament has passed earlier this week the report by Roberto Gualtieri, with unanimous vote, on the update of the inter-institutional agreement on the EU Transparency Register for lobbies, regulating the relationships between interest groups and representatives of the European Parliament and Commission. Without a law regulating a compulsory registration, the subscription has been so far made on voluntary basis. Yet, the agreement reached strengthens its dispositions, setting up a system incentivizing the subscription and limiting the interactions with institutions for non-registered groups of interest.

The approval “is an important step towards greater transparency of the EU institutions,” said Roberto Gualtieri (S&D), not completely satisfied anyway. “We insist on our request for a mandatory register for all organizations engaged in EU policy-making and call on the Commission to take all necessary steps for this purpose” tabling a proposal by the end of 2016.

The approved report contains a system guaranteeing incentives for registered interest groups, pushing them to make their relations with the EU more transparent, and their behaviours more rigorous.

“This is a binding call for transparency,” added Gualtieri, “into the EU institutions, in the interests of these institutions, of the groups of interest and especially of European citizens.”

The report will be approved during the last plenary session of this Parliament in April.

Perla Ressese