Goed begin voor lobbyregister (en) - Hoofdinhoud

The Commission’s Register for Interest Representatives, launched on 23 June 2008, is progressing well. European citizens now have direct access to information on the existence, diversity and multitude of represented interests; less than six months after the Register was begun, more than 700 organisations are now registered^[1], with more being added every day.

There has been a steady and constant flow of some thirty additions per week to the Register. More than 400 organisations representing business and professional organisations are registered, along with more than 150 NGOs. Specialised consultancy firms and law firms lobbying the European institutions are still not signing up quickly enough, but their professional organisations have recently expressed their intention to encourage registration. Think- tanks are also expected to join.

Since several federations have now drawn up guidelines to help their members sign up, the Commission expects this flow to be maintained or even grow early next year and anticipates that all image-conscious interest representatives committed to transparency will register in the coming weeks.

Background

On 16 December, the European Commission and the European Parliament began inter-institutional talks to look into the possibility of setting up a joint register for all lobbyists involved in influencing the European Union’s decision-making processes. The aim is to give the profession a single register, with no red tape, providing the public with a single entry-point to a comprehensive overview of the role of lobbyists in the EU’s decision-making bodies.

^[1] The Register is available to the public on line at https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/