Transparency about lobby register deal urgently needed – publish the agreement! | Corporate Europe Observatory

Transparency about lobby register deal urgently needed – publish the agreement! | Corporate Europe Observatory

Huge unclarity remains about what was actually decided last week about the future of the EU's lobby transparency register at the final meeting of the group of MEPs and Commission officials tasked with reviewing the register.

As reported on Friday, press releases by the European Parliament and the Commission contradicted each other on key points and as a result, media reports also diverged on whether there was agreement on a transition to a mandatory register and how this transition would look. On Friday a document with 30 recommendations was published on the Transparency Register website, but this is a vaguely-worded summary of discussions at previous meetings and it is not the actual Inter-Institutional Agreement. Clarity will only come when the text of the draft Inter-Institutional Agreement is released. MEP Rainer Wieland, who chaired the working group, should as soon as possible release the text in order to allow for democratic debate about the outcome of the register review.

However, a European Parliament press spokesperson has indicated to CEO that the document with 30 recommendations is an accurate view of what was agreed. While we are waiting for Wieland to release the draft Inter-Institutional Agreement, let us have a closer look at these 30 points.