The new proposal is aimed at enhancing both openness of EU decision-making process and accountability of the EU institutions. It aims to make the existing Transparency Register – which is voluntary and applicable to the European Parliament (EP) and the Commission – unavoidable for any interest representatives seeking to influence policy-making in all three institutions, thus also including Council and, on a voluntary basis, other EU institutions, bodies, offices and agencies.

This proposal for an interinstitutional agreement (IIA) is the result of three calls from the Parliament for a mandatory register. The first call dates back to 8 May 2008 (Resolution 2007/2115(INI)), while the second is from 2011 (Decision 2010/2291(ACI). The third call consists of the Parliament's decision of 15 April 2014 on the modification of the Interinstitutional Agreement (IIA) on the Transparency Register.

In view of the previous Commission's claim that Article 352 TFEU was not a suitable legal basis for such a proposal, the Juncker Commission had planned, in its work programme for 2015, to submit a non-legislative proposal in the form of an interinstitutional agreement. Due to time constraints, the same commitment was taken over to the 2016 work programme.

In May 2016, the Commission adopted new rules on expert groups, requiring entities represented in groups types B and C to register in the Transparency Register, thereby reinforcing the transparency of technical expertise provided to EU policy-making.

The Commission adopted its proposal for an IIA on a mandatory transparency register on 28 September 2016.

The Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament, at its meeting on 27 October 2016, appointed Sylvie Guillaume (S&D, France), Vice-President responsible for the Transparency Register and Danuta Maria Hübner (EPP, Poland), Chair of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, as EP's lead negotiators. The lead negotiators chair a contact group of the Transparency Register (composed by one member of each political groups) and prepare the EP's negotiating mandate for the upcoming negotiations with the Council and the Commission on the 'Transparency Register'. At its meeting on 11 April 2017, the Transparency Register contact group endorsed, by a large majority, the draft mandate and submitted it to the Conference of Presidents.

The Conference of Presidents, at its ordinary meeting held on 15 June 2017 adopted the mandate for the upcoming negotiations with the Council and the Commission on the 'Transparency Register'. On 6 September 2017, a first political meeting of Parliament, Council and Commission saw the three institutions agree on the political importance of this file and underline their commitment to increase the transparency of interest representation in the Union. On 6 December 2017, the Permanent Representatives Committee (Coreper) agreed on the Council's position on the Commission proposal for a mandatory transparency register and gave mandate to the presidency to begin negotiations with the Parliament and Commission on the Council's participation in the transparency register.

On 12 June 2018 the three institutions reiterated their common ambition to make further progress towards strengthening the EU Transparency Register, and their commitment to ensure the transparency of the negotiating process itself. On 9 October 2018 Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans wrote to Danuta Maria Hübner (EPP, Poland), Chair of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, to reiterate the position of the Commission in favour of a mandatory system. The Commission stressed the importance of public disclosure of meetings between MEPs and interest representatives; it also highlighted the need to ensure that only interest representatives who are registered in the Transparency Register may participate in EP intergroup or other official grouping activities. On December 2018, the Committee on Constitutional Affairs of the European Parliament voted to introduce binding lobby transparency for rapporteurs, shadow rapporteurs and committee chairpeople. On 31 January 2019, the European Parliament in plenary session voted in favour of the proposal. Parliament decided that when MEPs act as rapporteurs, shadow rapporteurs or committee chairs, they are 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 (in May 2020, following on the Covid-19 outbreak, the Parliament approved a provision to improve the online tool used to publish information about lobbying meetings between rapporteurs, shadow rapporteurs and committee chairs with interest representatives via video-conference).

On March 2020 the European Parliament Conference of Presidents have agreed to restart the negotiations about a mandatory transparency register and designated MEPs Katarina Barley (S&D) and Danuta Hübner (EPP) as it lead negotiators. Inter-institutional talks restarted on June and October, with a focus on the issue of conditionality, the specificities of each institution and the governance of the register. On the 8th interinstitutional negotiation meeting on the Transparency Register held on 15 December, Parliament, Council and Commission reached a final political agreement. Each of the three institutions have to formally adopt the agreement after which it can be signed and enter into force, as foreseen, in the spring 2021. On 27 January 2021 Danuta Hübner (EPP) was appointed rapporteur and AFCO committee which on 13 April 2021 adopted a report endorsing the political agreement between the three institutions. The European Parliament adopted a decision on the conclusion of an interinstitutional agreement between the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, and the European Commission on a mandatory transparency register on 27 April 2021. 

References:

• European Commission, draft decision of 12 September 2017 on a Code of Conduct for the Members of the European Commission
• European Commission, Proposal for an interinstitutional agreement on a mandatory Transparency Register, COM(2016)0627
• European Parliament, Decision on the modification of the interinstitutional agreement (IIA) on the Transparency Register, 2014/2010(ACI)
• European Parliament. Decision of 11 May 2011 on conclusion of an interinstitutional agreement between the European Parliament and the Commission on a common Transparency Register, 2010/2291(ACI)
• European Parliament, Resolution of 8 May 2008 on the development of the framework for the activities of interest representatives (lobbyists) in the European institutions, 2007/2115(INI)    
• European Commission, Decision of 25 November 2014 on the publication of information on meetings held between Members of the Commission and organisations or self-employed individuals, 2014/838/EU
• European Parliament, resolution of 14 September 2017, Transparency, accountability and integrity in the EU institutions 
• European Council, Interinstitutional agreement on a mandatory Transparency Register - State of play and guidance for further work
• European Parliament, Agreement between the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission on a mandatory transparency register, 2020/2272(ACI)

Further reading:

• European Parliament, European Commission, Annual Report on the operations of the Transparency Register, 2017
• European Parliament, EPRS, Transparency of lobbying in Member States : comparative analysis, Briefing, 2019
• European Parliament, EPRS, EU Transparency Register, Briefing, May 2016
• European Parliament, EPRS, Transparency of lobbying at EU level, Briefing, December, 2015
• European Parliament, IPOL, Interest representatives' obligation to register in the Transparency Register EU competences and commitments to fundamental rights: in-depth analysis, 2014

Author: Kristina Grošek, Members' Research Service, legislative-train@europarl.europa.eu