PROMOTING REGISTRATION IN THE EU TRANSPARENCY REGISTER (CAVEAT EMPTOR)

Upon signing to the EU Transparency Register organisations and individuals are provided an Identification Number (Registrant Number). For example, AALEP ID Nr. is 86045688255-44.

It simply means that the organisation/individual individual/entity has been added to the Register. Registration does NOT mean Accreditation. But confusion comes about because following ‘Registration’ the next step is to apply for so-called ‘Accreditation’ to the European Parliament which really means being provided access to the premises.  Organisations and individuals are required to accede to the Register prior to requesting access to the European Parliament. Any decision on a request for access to the European Parliament’s premises is the sole prerogative of Parliament and registration in the Transparency Register shall not confer an automatic entitlement to access authorisation. If an organisation is disbarred from the Register, access for individuals working for that organisation will be automatically revoked.

Many Registrants in the EU Transparency Register are taking advantage of having signed to the Register as a marketing tool to leverage their registration both internally and externally (which may explain the surge in Registrants)

Example: XYZ Company joins the EU Transparency Register, Gains European Accreditation….. XYZ Company as part of its on-going commitment to lobbying transparency, has voluntarily enrolled in the European Union’s Transparency Register, a lobbyist register operated jointly by the European Parliament and European Commission, and has been registered under Identification Number nnnn. Subsequently, XYZ Company has been granted formal accreditation to the European Parliament, with the stated aim of etc.

Some stress their long-standing commitment to transparency and independence and provide their transparency Register ID Nr.

It should be made clear that signing to the EU Transparency Register does not imply in any way that an individual/organisation has the competence to carry out public policy advocacy /lobbying/interest representation activities. To be accredited competence would need to be backed up by recognized-based qualifications which is not the case under the EU Transparency Register. This is an important consideration as ‘having one’s name in the EU Transparency Register may be perceived on the market as one having increased credibility, when in fact it does not. Some organisations and individuals are not embarrassed about publicizing that they’re ‘accredited’ to the European Union as if such entry in the Register was a recognition of their competence. In other words, the public might be misled that indeed such organisations and individuals have recognized competences since they appear in the Registry.