EU transparency proposals delayed to April

A new revised draft of EU proposals for more transparency of decision-making will appear “within weeks”, a senior official told EURACTIV. The draft has as yet been circulated only to the Barosso cabinet and within the office of the Commission Secretary General.

A senior official on 7 March admitted that the EU Commission would miss its own March deadline for publishing a Green Paper on improving transparency in EU politics, EURACTIV has learnt. The draft paper will be examined by Commissioners’ cabinets who are due to agree on it “within weeks”, he said.

The official was speaking at the final session of the European Pubic Affairs Association’s 5th annual conference which discussed the pros and cons of registration of interest representation. Since Anti-Fraud and Administrative Affairs Commissioner Siim Kallas announced the initiative in March 2005, there has been significant movement by interest groups representing public affairs consultancy firms, consultants and some of the NGOs. 

John Houston of EPACA, the trade association representing 32 public affairs consultancies said they were now prepared to accept compulsory registration on condition that this also applied to all other lobbyists: law firms, accountants, companies and NGOs. However, the move was questioned by some as an attempt to make registration of interests over-complicated and unworkable in practice, especially concerning law firms. ALTER-EU, a coalition of 80 civil society groups, already indicated it was ready to sign up to a compulsory registry of Brussels lobbyists. 

EPACA were also studying some definitions of what constitutes lobbying provided by ALTER-EU. Initial reactions to the study were generally positive.

Rogier Chorus, President of SEAP, representing around 200 individual PA consultants expressed a preference for a self-regulatory system.

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Citizens asked to define their EU communication rights

The Commission has opened a special web page where citizens can express their views on the European Charter or Code of Conduct on Communication, announced in the White Paper on a European Communication Policy.