KEY ORGANISATIONS WITH A FOCUS ON LOBBYING

1. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Division for Public Sector Integrity, Paris. The OECD helps policy makers and practitioners review and reform governance measures in particular in areas vulnerable to corruption, such as conflict of interest, lobbying and revolving doors, public procurement. The OECD is in the forefront of providing comparative data, mapping out good practices and developing policy guidelines, principles, as well as practical tools to support policy makers and managers build effective integrity framework in the public sector organizations e.g. 2010 Recommendation on Principles for Transparency and Integrity in Lobbying; 2008 Recommendation on Enhancing Integrity in Public Procurement; 2003 Recommendations on Guidelines for Managing Conflict of Interest in the Public Service and 1998 Recommendation on Improving Ethical Conduct in the Public Service).

2. Council of Europe, The Group of States against Corruption (GRECO): Established in 1999 by the Council of Europe to monitor States’ compliance with the organisation’s anti-corruption standards.  GRECO’s objective is to improve the capacity of its members to fight corruption by monitoring their compliance with Council of Europe anti-corruption standards through a dynamic process of mutual evaluation and peer pressure. It helps to identify deficiencies in national anti-corruption policies, prompting the necessary legislative, institutional and practical reforms. GRECO also provides a platform for the sharing of best practice in the prevention and detection of corruption. Currently, GRECO comprises 49 member States (48 European States and the United States of America). GRECO  which has its seat in Strasbourg, is assisted by a Secretariat, headed by an Executive Secretary, provided by the Secretary General of the Council of Europe.

3. Council of Europe- European Committee on Legal Co-operation (CDCJ): Intergovernmental body which is responsible for the standard-setting activities of the Council of Europe in the field of public and private law. The CDCJ is composed of representatives of all member states, principally from the Ministries of Justice who meet once a year at the COE's headquarters in Strasbourg. Did mandate a study on the feasibilityy of an instrument on the legal regulation of lobbying activities (Comparative assessment of relevant law, policy and practice in Council of Europe member states, Gap analysis, Preliminary proposals on the principal content of a legal instrument). Follow-up should be given in 2015.

4. Transparency International European Union Liaison Office (TI-EU): Part of the global movement of Transparency International with its more than 100 national chapters worldwide, and closely associated with the Transparency International Secretariat (TI-S) based in Berlin. The TI-EU Office coordinates TI’s EU-relevant anti-corruption work, carried out by national chapters across and beyond the EU, including cooperation among the 25 national chapters in European Union Member States, the national chapters in EU accession candidate countries. TI-EU engages with officials and politicians from European Union institutions and a range of other stakeholders in Brussels, sharing its vision and trying to influence decisions made at EU level. As part of the global Transparency International movement, the Transparency International EU Office (TI-EU) focuses on EU advocacy. In consultation with the movement, TI-EU promotes accountability, transparency and integrity in the EU’s internal and external policies and the EU institutions through strategic advocacy campaigns at the EU level. The vision of the TI-EU Office is a world in which government, politics, business, civil society and the daily lives of people are free of corruption. It is the mission of the TI-EU Office to prevent and address corruption and promote integrity, transparency and accountability in the EU institutions and in EU internal and external policies, programmes and legislation. This will in turn enhance efforts at the national level to fight corruption and promote equality and access to justice for citizens. It is the objective of the TI-EU Office to create lasting, structural change at the EU level so that government, politics, business, civil society and the daily lives of people are characterised by integrity, justice and security.

5. European Commission-DG Migration and Home Affairs: Works to measure efforts in the fight against corruption and to develop a comprehensive EU anti-corruption policy, in close cooperation with the Council of Europe Group of States against Corruption (GRECO). Mechanism for the periodic assessment of EU States’ efforts in the fight against corruption, Implementation of the existing anti-corruption framework (Europol (to step up its efforts to combat corruption, including through regular threat assessments), Eurojust (to further facilitate the exchanges of information on cross-border corruption cases) and CEPOL (to propose specific training programmes for law enforcement officials on cross-border corruption investigations).

6. EU Ombudsman: The Ombudsman regularly deals with complaints about the Transparency Register, e.g. about allegedly inaccurate information given on the register. The Ombudsman has called on the Commission to improve the monitoring and comparability of data in the register. The Ombudsman has also recommended that the Commission systematically inform lobbyists and other interest representatives it meets about its intention to release their names, should requests for public access be made about their lobbying activities.

7. EU Joint Transparency Register Secretariat: Both, the European Parliament and the Commission are responsible for the supervision of the Register. It is managed by the Joint Transparency Register Secretariats which is made up of only four EU officials – two officials from the Commission and two from the Parliament.

8. Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (Alter EU). The Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU) is a coalition of over 200 public interest groups and trade unions concerned with the increasing influence exerted by corporate lobbyists on the political agenda in Europe, the resulting loss of democracy in EU decision-making and the postponement, weakening, or blockage even, of urgently needed progress on social, environmental and consumer-protection reforms. The coalition has no staff of its own, except for a part time coordinator based in Brussels and occasional interns.