Brief History of the European Transparency Initiative

In the EU Commission's 2005 – 2009 mandate, transparency was listed as a strategic objective so as to promote the idea of openness and transparency as well as the fight against fraud being enhanced through better transparency and co operation. The idea of a transparency initiative was first initiated by the then Administrative Affairs and Anti-Fraud Commissioner Siim Kallas in a speech which he gave at Nottingham University on the 3^rd of March 2005. In his speech, Kallas stressed that there were challenges which involved creating an EU government that is operational by making it more transparent and making information easily accessible to citizens. He believed that transparency initiative could be introduced as to develop the current decision making process, to gain the trust of the public in EU institutions and to protect policymakers against their bad human tendencies.  He hoped that this initiative would improve the financial accountability associated with EU funding, strengthen the current integrity and independence of the EU institutions and lastly, develop tighter controls on lobbying.

Content of the Transparency Initiative

On the 9^th Of November 2005, Kallas recommended that this initiative deal with allowing the beneficiaries of the EU funds to be published on a web portal with the consent of the member states, raise public awareness of fraud through publishing case studies and creating ethical standards and measures for accountability for EU law policymakers. This communication also suggested that more needs to be done for lobbying transparency. Proposed measures to be taken include a common code of conduct rather than a register for lobbyists and there is also current debate on introducing a form of financial disclosure so as to monitor the spending of lobbyists, as the public and EU institutions needs to know more about the impact of the activities of a lobbyist.

Green Paper for the Consultation on the ‘European Transparency Initiative'

In May 2006, a green paper was published which started the consultation for this initiative which wanted the views of the stakeholders on issues of transparency. It wanted to establish, through its three chapters on the need for a better framework for the activities of interest representatives (lobbyists), feedback on the Commission's minimum standards of consultation and the disclosure of information of the beneficiaries of EU funds.

Results to this consultation and Communication on Follow Up to the Green Paper on the ‘European Transparency Initiative'

On the 21^st of March 2007, the Commission released a Staff Working Document on the results of the consultation from the Green Paper. On the same day, a Communication following these results up was also published. Here it was suggested that a new voluntary register for lobbyists and a draft conduct was to be created, the consultation standards to be reinforced and the process towards publishing the beneficiaries of EU funds should be pursued.       

Further consultation on a Code of Conduct for Interest Representatives (Lobbyists) and Results     

In December 2007, on the basis of the Communication of the Follow up to the Green Paper, the Commission published a draft code of conduct that was to complement a public register containing a record of the finances of lobbyists. This code indicated how lobbyists were to behave when making representations. The results of this consultation were released on the 27^th of May 2008 which highlighted that there was wide support for the principles of the code but asked for a more narrow definition of ‘interest representation', a better explanation of the monitoring procedures associated with the code and asked for certain stringent rules concerning disclosure of interests to be removed from the code.    

Introduction of a Code of Conduct and proposal for a common register to encourage transparency

On the 28 May 2008, the Commission adopted a ‘Code of Conduct for Interest Representatives' which detailed rules that lobbyists should follow in their relationship with the EU executive which involve the qualities of honesty, openness and integrity. Then on the 23 June 2008, the EU executive launched a voluntary register designed to be used with the code of conduct. This register features three categories of lobbyists including professional consultancies and law firms, corporate lobbyists and trade associations, and NGOs and think tanks. All these lobbyists are to provide a breakdown of their finances and spending in this register. Then, in April 2008, the European Parliament launched a report on ‘The development of the framework for the activities of interest representatives (lobbyists) in the EU institutions' which looked into establishing a common, compulsory register for lobbyists within all three EU institutions towards the end of year. So, in October 2009, a review of this lobby registration was revealed where it was highlighted that there were more stringent financial disclosure measures needed and also adopted a procedure of disclosure which involved differentiated brackets dependent on the size of turnover generated.     

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