AALEP INVITED BY THE EP-EC JOINT SECRETARIAT OF THE TRANSPARENCY REGISTER TO A MEETING FOR EXCHANGING VIEWS ON ISSUES RELATED TO THE REGISTER

AALEP along with other relevant organizations has been invited by the EP-EC joint secretariat of the Transparency register to attend a meeting on 21 November 2011 to have an exchange of views on various issues related to the Register of transparency, namely concerning the revision of the financial guidelines.  The new financial guidelines will be published on AALEP website.

The European Parliament and Commission inter-institutional agreement on the “ Transparency register “ (TR) establishes the rules and principles to be implemented and respected by registrants. However, complete they might be, stakeholders have indicated their desire to rely, within this framework, on a set of complimentary implementation guidelines in order to ensure that registrants are presenting their information in a consistent manner both for the sake of comparability and the need to reduce, as much as possible, uncertainty about the expected information to be provided.

To meet this expectation, and to clarify the expected format and content of the information to be made publicly available through the register, the joint “Transparency register” secretariat produces complementary administrative guidelines.

These guidelines are introduced progressively according to the needs. They take into account the fruits of experience deriving from the exposure to new specific situations, to questions raised by registrants themselves as well as from the lessons drawn from the treatment of complains.

Each time a substantial element is produced, a new updated edition of the compliance guidelines are published on the TR website. New editions have no retroactive effect. It applies as of its date of publication, to each new registration as well as to each new annual update recorded by a registrant.

TR GUID Fin 1/2011: Zero € declaration:

It is possible to introduce a figure of 0 € for the turnover attributable to activities falling under the scope of the register for registration of section 1 of IAA annex 1 or for the estimate of the cost of such activities in the case of registrants from the other sections. But in this case a justification must be provided in the related open space open for comments in the registration form. Absence of any justification will be considered by the joint secretariat as an anomaly and the registrant will be contacted to provide this justification. Refusal to do so will be deemed a violation of rule of the code of conduct.

TR GUID Fin 2/2011: Relative weight of clients (Section 1 registrants):

In complement of the list of their clients, section 1 registrants are expected to declare within which bracket in € (See grid on annex 2-B of the IAA) falls the value of their contract with each of these clients. The value to be taken in consideration is not the full value of all their contracts with these clients but only the value of, or in, these contracts which cover the activities falling under the scope of the register.

TR GUID Fin 3/2011: Cost estimate: The “estimate of the cost of the activities falling under the scope of the register” by the registrant should be established by adding the 5 following elements:      

1. Staff costs: to be calculated on the basis of staff time (Calculated pro rata temporis) devoted to activities falling under the scope of the register and expressed in number of person/year. The share of pesronnel costs devoted to these activities will then be the sum of the respective shares.

2. Administrative costs (including cost of offices in Brussels): to be calculated by applying the share of staff cost, resulting from the above approach, to the administrative costs.

3. Outsourced activity costs, consultancies fees adn subcontracted activities related to activities falling under the scope of the register.

4. In house operational expenditures: cost of all operational expenditures related to activities falling under the scope of the register.

5. Full Membership fees, contributions and participation cost in all: trade or professional associations, think tanks, special events organized by third parties, which have not registered themselves in the joint Transparency register. These costs should not be taken into account for those organizations which have registered themselves. But in those cases, for transparency reasons, the list of these organizations should also be included in the list to provide under the label "networks" in the registration form.

TR GUID OE 1/2011: Main legislative proposals covered by the activities of the registrant

Registrants are advised to mention under this label the legislative files on which they have worked and led activities falling under the scope of the register during the preceding year. For the legislative files, it is the entirety of the process which is understood, that is: from earlier preparation (Green- White papers), including the Commission preparatory work up to the legislative process (Directives and regulations) and the adoption of the texts by the legislative bodies. It includes the Union annual budget, the multiannual financial framework and major policy review processes.

In order to establish this list, registrants are invited to use, as far as possible, the terminology and the references used by the institutions in their official documents such as:   

- The European Commission annual work programme

- The European Commission Impact assessment web page (including the roadmaps)

- The legislative observatory (European Parliament)

- The Prelex data base

- The work in progress web page of the European Parliament

- The work in progress document- by parliamentary committee

Feedback from registrant about the use of these references will be welcomed in order to review this guideline at a later stage, on the basis of experience.

TR GUID OE 2/2011: Number of persons involved This number should be based on the elements taken into account for the calculation of the staff cost estimate as indicated with by TR GUID Fin 3/2011. Any person benefiting from an access card or accreditation with the European Parliament should be counted as a full 1 person/year in this estimate