PROPOSAL FOR AN INTERINSTITUTIONAL AGREEMENT (IIA) ON A MANDATORY TRANSPARENCY REGISTER

COM(2016) 627 final 28.09.2016

The Commission has proposed a mandatory Transparency Register, based on a new Interinstitutional Agreement (IIA) covering the European Parliament, the Council of the EU and the Commission. The proposal aims to strengthen and extend the current scheme which covers only the European Parliament and the Commission.

According to the EC, the proposal will ensure high standards of transparency in all three institutions by moving from a voluntary system to one where registration becomes a precondition for interest representation at EU level, by making certain interactions, in particular meetings with decision-makers in the EU institutions conditional upon prior registration.

The Commission has also proposed a number of changes to strengthen the monitoring and control of the data in the Register, with enhanced human and IT resources and better controls and enforcement of the rules.

The new rules will make access by interest representatives to decision-makers, premises, policy forums or information subject to prior registration in the Register and acceptance of the Code of Conduct, making it a precondition for interest representation.

The three institutions agree to make the following types of interaction conditional upon prior registration of interest representatives:

In the European Parliament

1. Access to Parliament buildings: eligibility for applying for long-term access passes to the European Parliament premises of individuals representing, or working for, interest representatives;
2. Committee public hearings: possibility for interest representatives to be invited to speak at a committee hearing as a guest;
3. Patronage: granting of patronage to events organised by interest representatives;
4. Meetings: meetings between interest representatives and members of the European Parliament ('MEPs'), the Secretary-General, Directors-General and Secretaries General of political groups;
5. Events: hosting of events organised by interest representatives on the European Parliament's premises;
6. Notices: sending of automatic messages about the European Parliament's activities to interest representatives.

In the Council of the European Union

1. Meetings: meetings between interest representatives and the Ambassador of the current or forthcoming Presidency of the Council of the EU, as well as their deputies in the Committee of the Permanent Representatives of the Governments of the Member States to the European Union, the Council's Secretary-General and DirectorsGeneral;
2. Notices: sending of automatic messages about the Council’s activities to interest representatives.

In the European Commission

1. Meetings: meetings between interest representatives and members of the Commission, their Cabinet members and Directors-General;
2. Expert groups: appointment of certain types of expert group members;
3. Public consultations: sending of automatic alerts about the Commission’s consultations to interest representatives; the Commission will differentiate between registered and non-registered entities by publishing their contributions separately;
4. Patronage: granting of patronage to events organised by interest representatives;
5. Mailing lists: sending of alerts by means of mailing lists to interest representatives about certain Commission activities.

As well as moving to a mandatory system, covering all three institutions, the Commission is putting forward a number of improvements with a view to refining or strengthening the current system. Key changes include:

• Clearer definition of 'lobbying': The new Agreement streamlines the broad definition of activities covered by the Register, which is one of the main strengths of the current EU system compared to many national lobbying regulation regimes. At the same time, the activities not covered by the register are more clearly set out.
• Exemption for local and regional governments: The current Register does not apply to certain specified entities, for example, churches and religious communities, political parties, Member States' government services, third countries' governments, international intergovernmental organisations and their diplomatic missions. In addition to these, the new Agreement will also exclude local and regional authorities as well as their representative associations from the scope of the Register. This reflects feedback from the public consultation and is based on the fact that these public and democratically elected structures have a special status in the European multi-level system of governance. Representation of their interests cannot be equated with lobbying activities.
• Simplified data disclosure requirements: The new Agreement revises the data disclosure requirements to strike a more appropriate balance between the need for transparency and the need to reduce the administrative burden of compliance. The data requirements now focus on the most relevant information as regards efforts to influence law-making. This includes costs of such activities for those who pursue their own interests, the relevant revenues for intermediaries, and the budgets of not-for-profit entities and their main sources of financing.
• Effective enforcement: The new Agreement will improve overall data quality by introducing systematic ex-ante checks on new registrations and simplifying the data reporting requirements. The Code of Conduct which sets out the principles of behaviour for interactions with the EU institutions will also be reinforced and made more precise. A more robust mechanism to handle breaches of the Code of Conduct and apply proportional measures when appropriate will be introduced. Registrants who do not respect the rules could face suspension from certain types of interaction (e.g. meetings with institutions) and removal from the Register.
• Creating stronger management structures: A well-functioning Register requires adequate resources, in particular to control the quality of data and enforce the rules. The new Agreement foresees a new management structure for the Register Secretariat with a view to achieving efficient decision-making. It defines the tasks of the Register Secretariat and its Coordinator and foresees a Management Board composed of the Secretaries-General of the three institutions.

The Commission considers that an Interinstitutional Agreement based on Article 295 TFEU is the most pragmatic and promising option to achieve a mandatory scheme in a reasonable timeframe. The proposal's core aim is to make interactions with the EU institutions more transparent, not to regulate lobbying activity at Member State level, therefore an Interinstitutional Agreement is more appropriate than a Regulation or a Directive.

Next steps?

This proposal is an important step towards a common and mandatory transparency regime at the EU level. The Commission is inviting the Council and the European Parliament to negotiate with a view to establishing as swiftly as possible a mandatory Register covering all three institutions.

Definitions

As it stands the Transparency Register includes lobbying, interest representation and advocacy as ‘it covers all activities carried out to influence- directly or indirectly- policymaking, policy implementation and decision-making in the European Parliament and the European Commission, no matter where they are carried out or which channel or method of communication is used. Some take issue with the current definition of lobbying activities and have suggested ways of further narrowing it down for example by using the definition drafted by the Council instead  where ‘lobbying means promoting specific interests by communicating with a public official as part of a structural and organized action aimed at influencing public decision-making. Others still have suggested that an exhaustive list of activities could be useful to better define what is meant.

Advocacy: In legal terms, advocacy refers to all attempts by civil society organisations (e.g. non-governmental organisations, foundations, think-tanks, consultancies, or religious bodies) to influence policy and decision-making processes.

EU Lobbying: According to the European Commission, all activities carried out with the objective of influencing the policy-making and decision-making processes of the European Union institutions.

Lobbyist: According to the European Commission, someone carrying out interest representation, working in a variety of organisations such as public-affairs consultancies, law firms, non-governmental organisations, think-tanks, corporate lobby units ((in-house representatives') or trade associations.