Commission holds second negotiating round with parliament and Council on a mandatory Transparency Register

Yesterday evening, 12 June, in Strasbourg, negotiators from the three EU institutions continued their discussions on strengthening the EU Transparency Register, and committed to make further progress towards a common interpretation of the key issue of conditionality.

The three institutions discussed ways to make their interactions with interest representatives conditional on the registration of such representatives in the Transparency Register. Establishing this principle will provide citizens with more information about who seeks to influence the EU legislative process, allowing them to better scrutinise how EU decision-making works. Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans said: “Being on the Transparency Register must be a pre-condition for lobbyists to get access to lawmakers. The Commission has applied this principle for almost four years, and it works. Now we must agree on the practicalities for extending it to other European decision-makers. Further work is needed to ensure that we can agree on how all three institutions commit to meaningful implementation of the principle ‘no registration, no meeting'”. At the meeting the three institutions reiterated their common ambition to reach a meaningful improvement on the status quo, and their commitment to ensure the transparency of the negotiating process itself. More information is available in a press release here.