Commission to launch lobby register on 23 June on trial basis

摘要

The public register of EU lobbyists will be put in place on 23 June on a trial basis, announced the European Commission, on 8 May, without stating whether it would be optional or not. The same day, the European Parliament approved a report recommending a mandatory common registration system for all the EU institutions, matched with a code of conduct. MEPs adopted, at their plenary session in Brussels, the report by Ingo Friedrich (EPP-ED, Germany), their response to the EU executive's transparency initiative. The rapporteur 'inherited' the report from former fellow member Alexander Stubb (EPP-ED, Finland), who left the EP to become foreign minister. The plenary endorsed the recommendations of the Constitutional Affairs Committee, calling for a mandatory public register of representatives of interest groups active in Brussels. Commis- sioner Siim Kallas (administration, audit and anti-fraud) has so far tended to back a voluntary approach, saying that the "distinction between the two is purely rhetorical," since "serious lobbyists care about their reputation and would risk losing their credibility if they didn't reg- ister," according to his spokesman.