The EU Ethics Body covers members of EU institutions and provides common standards for ethical conduct of members and a formal mechanism for coordination and exchange of views on ethical requirements among institutions. The goal is to subject EU politicians to common, clear, transparent and comprehensible standards.

The standards relate to several fields:

Belgium

• Voluntary
• Broad Definition
• Only applies to Parliament, entirely voluntary
• Register Scope: Legislative
• Register Category: Identification, field of activity
• Limited Information
• Public access
• Code of conduct

Belgium needs to complete the legislative reform on lobbying, establishing a framework including a transparency register and a legislative footprrint covering members of Parliament and Government

Note  

Adopting EU-wide standards on lobbying would, at minima, guarantee a baseline level of transparency and integrity across all EU Member States, enabling citizens across the continent to hold their public officials to account. It would also protect public institutions from undue influence from domestic or foreign malign actors in a time of considerable geopolitical strife.

An EU -wide adoption of a legislative instrument on interest representation would cover:

Romania

Lithuania

Ireland

Cyprus

Estonia

Latvia

• Legislative only
• Definition of lobbying N/A
• Full law enters into force in 2025 with broad definition, lobby register, code of conduct and transparency of interactions.

Latvia needs to ensure the effective implementation of the legislation on lobbying, including the setting-up of a special lobby register.

Note

Slovenia