TRANSPARENCY OF MEETINGS WITH LOBBYISTS IN THE EP

A revision of the European Parliament’s rules of procedure, was adopted on 31 January 2019, to increase transparency obligations for meetings between elected officials and lobbies. When MEPs act as rapporteurs, shadow rapporteurs or committee chairs, they will be obliged to publish their scheduled meetings with interest representatives on Parliament’s website. Other MEPs are also encouraged to publish online information on such meetings. Agendas for meetings between MEPs and interest representatives will be made public.

This measure aims to highlight the influence of lobbies on legislation by listing the number of meetings held between policymakers and the various stakeholders for a dossier. Citizens will now be able to better follow the work of their elected representatives with information about the interest groups they meet.

Best Practice: Greens/EFA Initiative on Transparency of Meetings with Lobbyists

The Green/EFA group in the European Parliament is committed to transparency and accountability. Green/EFA believes that citizens have a right to know what their political representatives are doing and that they should be able to see and control how power is being exercised in Brussels. This is why Greens/EFA already publishes lists of meetings that they have with outside lobbyists and interest groups, using an open-source tool which exports meetings from their calendars and publishes them online.

Meetings declared include

• Meetings with outside lobbyists and interest representatives.
• Meetings are automatically published the day after they have taken place, in an automated way.
• Meetings that have been planned in advance. Public events or conferences at which lobbyists may approach Greens/EFA are not necessarily listed here.
• Planned meetings held both inside and outside the European Parliament.
• Meetings held with endangered political dissidents, with whistleblowers or with journalists are not declared

 How much detail is declared?

• The date of the meeting, the name of the organisation met with, and the topic of the meeting.
•  Also strive to publish links to the lobby groups' entry in the Transparency Register as well as the name of the individual lobbyists met.
• Some MEPs' assistants and group advisors are also declaring their meetings with lobbyists.
• Some MEPs declare meetings held with the Permanent Representations of Member States or with regional representatives, or with third countries.
• Some MEPs also declare meetings that they have had with other influential public bodies such as the International Monetary Fund or the United Nations