EP V-P Wallis targets Council over Transparency Register
LONDON/BRUSSELS: The European Parliament (EP) vice-president in charge of transparency has hailed the achievement in establishing Brussels’ Transparency Register but has hit out at the lack of engagement from the Council of Ministers as “not satisfactory”.
The EP and European Commission combined their lobbyist registers into the new Transparency Register this summer. But the Council has largely shunned negotiations.
Speaking at an event – ‘Transparency and Lobbying in the EU’ – in front of an audience of about 80 people (mainly students and campaigners) at University College London on Thursday last week (3 November), Diana Wallis MEP said: “There has been huge progress – especially when compared with the UK. We [EP/Commission] are ‘leading the game’ in some ways. But there is a gap – the Council. We invited the Council to meetings, but no-one ever came. They are currently ‘observers’ – it’s not satisfactory. If the Council joins we could make the register mandatory.”
In a ‘Q&A’ session she admitted that the Council’s involvement was “sensitive”, adding: “It’s the activity [of lobbying] that we are trying to capture, not where it takes place. The national representations are very sensitive about this, but as MEPs we do get lobbied by national representations. It [lobbying] can happen in the national capitals.”
Michael Shackleton from the European Parliament Information Office (London) was also a panellist at last week's event. He said: "It will be very hard for the Council to stay out of it [Transparency Register]. I predict they will come on board - reluctantly."
Reflecting on the establishment of the Transparency Register, Wallis said that engaging with lawyers who lobby was a "very difficult conversation". She went on to say: "It wasn't the German lawyers who caused the problem, it was the Belgian lawyers."
Wallis also said that she hoped the Transparency Register's degree of financial disclosure would increase in the future.
Separately, looking back on the Sunday Times'cash for laws' scandal earlier this year and its aftermath, Wallis said that she hoped the new draft code of conduct for MEPs would be in force "by January".
*** See 'Editor's Comment' (click on the tab bottom-right of this website's homepage)
7th November 2011 by Ian Hall
