Mandatory Transparency Register: provisional agreement on substantial points
At their sixth political meeting on 24 November, Parliament, Council and Commission negotiators confirmed that additional progress has been made.
On Tuesday, the European Parliament negotiators Vice-President Katarina Barley and Member of the Constitutional Affairs Committee Danuta Hübner, Minister of State for Europe at the Federal Foreign Office Michael Roth for the German Presidency of the Council, and Commission Vice-President for Values and Transparency Věra Jourová, took note of progress on several points, during their tripartite meeting to negotiate the Transparency Register. The provisionally agreed elements are fully in line with the commitments expressed at the previous political meetings of 16 June and 6 October, and take into account the differing natures of the signatory institutions.
These elements relate to the structure and resources of the new Transparency Register, as well as to eligibility requirements for interest representatives. In particular, the provisional agreement clarifies that observance of the code of conduct by applicants becomes part of the eligibility criteria. Provisions on monitoring and investigation procedures include the possibility to apply measures in case of non-observance of the code of conduct, and take into consideration also the rights of registrants, by establishing an effective decision-making and review process.
The Secretariat will be a joint operational structure with an adequate number of staff to address the new challenges relating to the functioning of the Register. The three institutions will be on an equal footing, as oversight and governance will be performed by the three institutions’ Secretaries-Generals, who will form the Register’s Management Board. The institutions will share the cost of maintenance and development of the Register proportionally (based on their respective administrative size), through a consensus-driven process.
In this manner, the Transparency Register will be effective in its mission and prepared to tackle future challenges.
Quotes
EP negotiator Katarina Barley (S&D, DE) said: “This Transparency Register needs to be reliable and virtually impossible to avoid in order to deliver. We have made progress today, which will certainly pave the way for a timely agreement among the three institutions. In terms of the Register's bread and butter, we are making sure that the rules, as well as the monitoring activities, will not create excessive bureaucracy. We have strengthened the code of conduct, aiming to address conflicts of interest, while finding a workable solution on resources.”
EP negotiator Danuta Hübner (EPP, PL) said: “The three institutions agreed that the cornerstone of this agreement would be to make the obligation to register as broad as possible within the limits of an interinstitutional agreement. We have put together a robust framework, so now we need to agree how to place this cornerstone to complete our negotiations. Parliament is ready to put in the extra work and I am confident we can reach an agreement in the upcoming weeks, as we are in principle already on the same page. Our goal is to make the EU more transparent for our citizens.”
Next steps
Following a discussion on the cornerstone of the new agreement, i.e. the principle whereby registration in the Transparency Register is a necessary precondition for interest representatives to carry out certain activities within the scope of the agreement, the negotiators agreed that talks at technical level should continue. The representatives of the three EU institutions remain hopeful that a final agreement can be reached before the end of the year, jointly aiming to establish in practice a common culture of transparent and ethical interest representation, delivering the transparency expected by EU citizens.
Background
The European Commission presented its proposal for a new inter-institutional agreement on a mandatory Transparency Register for interest representatives covering the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission in 2016. Since 2011, the Parliament and the Commission have jointly operated a public register for interest representatives aiming to make the EU decision-making process more transparent and accountable. The Council has been an observer to the current scheme since 2014.
More information on the Transparency Register negotiations can be found on the dedicated EP webpage.