The European Union has recognised and regulated lobbying activities since the establishment of the Register of Interest Representatives in the European Parliament in 1996. On 20 May 2021, a new interinstitutional agreement on a mandatory transparency register has been agreed between the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission establishing a framework and operating principles for a coordinated approach as regards transparent and ethical interest representation. The Agreement shall cover activities carried out by interest representatives with the objective of influencing the formulation or implementation of policy or legislation, or the decision-making processes of the signatory institutions or other Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies (art. 3), where “interest representatives” means any natural or legal person, or formal or informal group, association or network, that engages in covered activities (art. 2, lett. a).
The Agreement includes, as key features, an online Transparency Register, a code of conduct and a complaints mechanism.
A significant element is represented by the principle of conditionality, according to which certain conditions on the interactions between interest groups and EU Institutions are placed, foreseeing that certain activities of interest representatives are conditional on them having registered in the Transparency register and through measures which further encourage registration and strengthen transparency.
The functioning of the Register is managed by a Secretariat (art. 8).
By submitting an application for registration, the applicants shall be eligible to be entered in the register if they carry out covered activities and observe the code of conduct set out in Annex I. Moreover, when submitting an application for registration, applicants shall provide the information listed in Annex II and shall agree to that information being made available in the public domain. Among the information to be entered in the Register: general information; links to Union Institutions; and financial information.
