Raad gaat meedoen aan lobbyregister, maar niet zeker hoe (en)

Member States accept Presidency proposal to consider the Council’s role in

the Transparency Register

Member State Ambassadors have agreed today to start exploring possible ways for the Council to have a role in the joint Transparency Register of the European Parliament and the Commission even though the Council is less concerned by the activities of interest representatives than the two other EU institutions. At the same time, the Council expressed its readiness to make a unilateral statement in June at the expected launch of the Register in order to highlight the value of this new tool and the Council’s support for the initiative. 

Background:

In its 2006 Green Paper on the European Transparency Initiative, the Commission defined "lobbying" as "all activities carried out with the objective of influencing the policy formulation and decision-making processes of the European institutions". It proposed a new framework for lobbying activities, based on a voluntary registration system, a common code of conduct and a system of monitoring and the eventual application of sanction. The Parliament and the Commission agreed in 2010 on the establishment of a joint Transparency Register. Upon several requests to the Council by the Commission and Parliament to join the Register, the Council, due to the efforts of the Hungarian Presidency, is now ready to consider having a role in the Register. Today’s decision is based on an exchange of letters between the three institutions in which the Parliament and the Commission emphasized that the activities covered by the Register were limited to those taking place at EU level and did not relate to the Member States' authorities, structures, institutions or activities.