Patronage is a way for the European Parliament to associate itself with a selected number of events which satisfy the conditions for eligibility in order to increase public interest in, and visibility of , its activities and those of the European Union among citizens, the media and civil society. Patronage is a form of moral support and should not place Parliament under any financial or material obligation. The President of the Parliament decides whether Parliament is to lend its patronage to an event.

The Open Government Partnership (OGP) was launched in 2011 to provide an international platform for domestic reformers committed to making their governments more open, accountable and responsive to citizens. In all member countries, government and civil society are working together to develop and implement ambitious open government reforms.

Participating EU Countries

Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index scores 177 countries and territories on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). Many EU countries need to tackle corruption and build more transparent public institutions. Croatia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Italy, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece with scores below 50 are of particular concern.

Here below are the 7 Positive Aspects of Public Policy Advocacy. Please make certain to emphasize them when trying to explain the work we do and our contribution to the decision-making process.

1. Improve decisions transparency and actively contribute to decision-making.

2. Raise the quality of decisions by professional supply of information to decision-makers.

3. Change in mentality considering the relationship between decision-makers and society.

4. Offers information on who supports a certain issue, why and how this affects society.

A Survey conducted by Forum for International Communications and published in January 2012 by Authors  Dr. Dana Oancea Liviu, Mihăileanu and Aurelian Horja in a report entitled ‘Lobbying in Romania’ reveals the following:

Regulating lobbying by law is one of the most controversial discussions in Romania. Until now mainly specialized lobbying companies and employers organizations have had a louder voice and fought the issuing of a law which would regulate lobbying.

The Sunlight Foundation (USA) is advocating for a Lobbyist Disclosure Enhancement Act. This legislation would significantly increase public knowledge of influence wielding in Washington DC. The legislation would require lobbyists to disclose the names of the covered executive branch officials or Members of Congress lobbied (or the name of the employer if the lobbyist meets with staff), the dates of the meetings, and the issues discussed.

The Open Knowledge Foundation and the Sunlight Foundation are teaming up to convene a new global group on lobbying transparency.

They want civil society organisations, journalists and citizens around the world to be able to use information about lobbying to understand and report on the influence of big money on politics and to push for reforms in this area. To this end they would like to connect and support campaigners working to improve lobbying transparency around the world so that they can:

In its review of the transparency register, the EU will propose new ways to penalise lobbyists who refuse to disclose information about their methods, but divisions over mandatory registration still hamper the tool's effectiveness. A joint working group of the European Parliament and European Commission are expected to finalise a review of the EU’s transparency register for lobby organisations by the end of December. The review will beef up the register's control of lobbying activities in Brussels.

Thanks to a new set of rules, lobbyists registered with the French National Assembly will be required to disclose more information about their lobbying activity, including their objectives, clients, and lobbying budget. More robust disclosure regarding the activities of lobbyists is a welcome development, and one that has been fought for by groups like Transparency International and Regards Citoyens.

The quest for coherence is not easy. The EU has to accommodate many diverse and legitimate sectoral and national interests. Its decision-making system is moreover complex and involves the various institutions of the EU through a variety of ways. This diversity in decision-making filters through to the level of implementation so that existing information and machinery for concerted action, vital to achieve a degree of coherence, are frequently inadequate.

What is Coherence?