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Transparency, Accountability and Integrity in the EU Institutions
Starting: 03 Sep
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This is a first draft of the political suggestions and demands of my initiative report on: “Transparency, Accountability and Integrity in the EU Institutions”. It will be introduced through a more formal part which will be added once the political parts in finalized. We used this political opportunity to collect bold proposals to win back the shrinked trust of citizens in EU institutions. EU institutions should become THE example of clean, transparent and accountable politics. Ideally to achieve progress also for Member States’ institutions to overcome corruption and lack of transparency.
The collection and discussion of suggestions on this platform will be closed on the 25th of September so that enough time for the formal polishing of the report remains.
We ask all of you of your opinion on the proposed text (using the thumbs up or down or comments) and ideas (to add new ideas use the (+) symbol). We thank those a lot who already send their input via our online form found on sven-giegold.de/transparency and also those who contributed to the call of Democracy International. We tried to include your ideas nevertheless please continue making suggestions and corrections in this draft where you feel it would help our task.
I will read each and every of your comments which is formulated in a respectful and constructive way. Thanks in advance for all votes and comments!
With Green European greetings
Sven Giegold, Greens/EFA MEP and rapporteur of the initiative report
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SvenGiegoldMEP
Member of the European Parliament and the Committees for Economic/Financial and for Constitutional Affairs
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P34
- Considers among its members those appointed rapporteur or Committee President to hold special responsibility to be transparent on their contact with lobbyists due to their role in EU legislation and therefore encourages rapporteurs and Committee President to adopt the same practise of exclusively meeting registered lobbyists and publish those meetings online and rapporteurs to publish a ‘legislative footprint’, which is a form annexed to reports drafted by Members detailing all the lobbyists with whom rapporteurs in charge of a particular file have met in the process of drawing up the report, where this has led to a substantial impact on the report
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P35
- Recognises the best practise of numerous legislative footprints already published by rapporteurs in this and former European Parliaments;
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P36
- Regrets the present disincentive to publish a legislative footprint as official part of a report by limits on length for report and justification; therefore requests the Bureau to develop a standardised form for rapporteurs to publish on a voluntary basis a 'legislative footprint';
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P37
- Calls on its President and Bureau to explore a possible codification of a mandatory legal footprint using the Parliament’s Code of Conduct or Rules of Procedure
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Parliament’s resources for own expertise
P38
- Recognises the high quality of services provided by its administration to its Members despite 2 percent decrease of its budget in real terms over the last years;
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P40
- Notes complains by members about areas of EU legislation where input is provided with a strong lack of balance overwhelmingly by strong private interest representatives yet insufficiently from the perspective of consumers or citizen;
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P41
- Requests its President and bureau to analyse increasingly available data on lobby meetings of members in respect of their balance between categories of the lobby transparency register and propose increases in ressources for services of the European Parliament in case of a lack of balance to provide independent knowledge to members in sufficiently short time to support legislation;
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sanctioning the Code of Conduct for lobbyists
P42
- Considers that, when interpreting ‘inappropriate behaviour’ within the meaning of point (b) of the Code of Conduct annexed to the modified agreement, in addition to the generally accepted principles as outlined in the Code, in particular in its points (c), (f) or (g), this expression includes:
- interference in the private sphere or personal life of decision-makers, e.g. by sending gifts to a decision-maker’s home address or approaching decision-makers at their home address or via their relatives or friends;
- performance, or any active promotion, of activities in the field of communication with the EU institutions and their Members or staff which are liable to impair the functionality of the EU institutions’ communication systems, particularly in cases where such activities are performed anonymously;
- failing to declare the interests or clients being represented when contacting a Member of the European Parliament or officials or other staff of the European Parliament with regard to the legislative process;
- employing ‘front groups’, i.e. organisations which hide the interests and parties they serve, the latter not being registered in the Transparency Register; and employing the representatives of third countries when engaged in direct and indirect lobbying activities;
- offer or grant support, whether financial or in terms of staff or material to Members of the European Parliament or their assistants;
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lawyers who lobby
P43
- Welcomes the clearer definitions describing exceptions to the scope of coverage of activities of law firms;
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P44
- Expects that such clearer definitions will help to encourage further registrations and bring about a better understanding of the meaning of covered activities of law firms, in order that they may benefit from the incentives offered by the Transparency Register and participate in a transparent manner in the decision-making process;
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P45
- Insists that registered law firms should declare in the Transparency Register all the clients on whose behalf they perform covered activities;
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P46
- Welcomes the recent decisions taken by the Brussels and Paris Bars recognising the differences between court-related activities of lawyers and other activities falling within the scope of the Transparency Register; moreover, invites the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe to encourage its members to adopt similar measures;
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P47
- Notes that, in some Member States, statutory provisions exist on the rules governing the exercise of professions, which in particular objectively prevent lawyers’ firms from having themselves entered in the Transparency Register and in the process revealing the information about their clients which the Register requires; also, however, perceives a substantial risk in that such statutory provisions can also be abused to avoid publishing information required for a correct entry in the Register; welcomes, in this connection, the perceptible readiness of professional organisations to work in partnership to ensure that, in the interests of their profession, such withholding of information is confined exclusively to what the legislation objectively permits; calls on the Commission and the President of the European Parliament to secure a practical outcome from this readiness and to enshrine a result in the modified agreement as soon as possible ;
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Recommendations to MEPs and staff towards lobbyists
P48
- Welcomes the intention of its Bureau to introduce a significant number of incentive measures in order to enhance participation in the Transparency Register;
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P49
- With a view to full implementation of those measures, invites its Bureau to consider the following concrete proposals for inclusion in the relevant Bureau decisions:
- encourage European Parliament officials or other staff, when approached by a representative of an organisation or individuals undertaking an activity falling within the scope of the Transparency Register, to check whether the organisation in question is registered, and, if it is not, to encourage it to register before meeting its representative;
- restrict access to European Parliament premises for non-registered organisations or individuals;
- allow events to be co-organised and/or co-hosted with organisations or individuals falling within the scope of the Transparency Register only if those organisations or individuals are registered;
- allow representatives of organisations or individuals falling within the scope of the Transparency Register to participate as speakers on the panel at committee hearings only if they are registered;
- withhold European Parliament's patronage of any event organised by an organisation falling within the scope of the Transparency Register to cases where such an organisation is registered;
- increase its vigilance against granting Parliamentary privileges to front organisations of third countries which do not respect European Union values;
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