Parlement en Commissie eens over gedragscode en register voor lobbyisten (en)

Met dank overgenomen van Europees Parlement (EP) i, gepubliceerd op woensdag 22 april 2009, 18:58.

The European Parliament and European Commission joint Working Group on lobbyists today agreed on a series of steps towards the objective of a common register of interest representatives in the EU institutions.

Negotiations between Parliament and Commission on this issue have been ongoing since December 2008, and today the members of the Working Group (Commissioner Kallas and MEPs Diana Wallis, Jo Leinen and Ingo Friedrich) agreed a set of guidelines for a future common register as well as a revised common code of conduct for lobbyists. Pending this "one-stop-shop", the two institutions launched a common web-page (see link below) today for accessing their respective existing registers.

In welcoming the agreement, Diana Wallis (ALDE, UK), Vice-President of the European Parliament with responsibility for transparency, commented "the new webpage we are launching today, in advance of the elections, will give citizens a more comprehensive insight into who is seeking to influence decision-making at EU level. The approval of a revised code of conduct for lobbyists and the guidelines for our future common register are a positive outcome for the transparency of the lawmaking process at EU level. I look forward, as coordinator of the current EP delegation having negotiated with the Commission, to a final agreement early in the life of the new Parliament, and call on the incoming Swedish Presidency to take this issue up on behalf of the Council".

Jo Leinen (PES, DE), Chair of Parliament's Committee on Constitutional Affairs, described today's agreement as a "significant step forwards for more transparency" and an "important intermediate result, which should be built on in the next parliamentary term, for a new governance culture in the European institutions".

Ingo Friedrich (EPP-ED, DE) , author of Parliament's report on the issue, expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the negotiations to date which, he said, represents "concrete progress which defends and reflects our parliamentary resolution on this issue". "The decisions taken today are first, but important, moves and it will be up to the next Parliament to oversee the successful establishment of a common register", noted Mr Friedrich.

Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas said: "The Commission has been advocating a "one-stop-shop" since we first launched the debate in 2005. So it gives me great satisfaction to know that this will now succeed, considering also that this fulfils a strong wish from the lobbying profession itself ".