1

Melanie Bossuroy

Transparency Unit, Secretariat General, European Commission

Marie THIEL, Administrator

Transparency Unit, European Parliament

21 March 2014

OECD, Brussels

EU Transparency Register

Presentation outline

2

I RECENT DEVELOPMENTS OF THE REGISTER

• Statistical overview & recent growth

• Political & technical review of the TR

II COVERAGE – WHO & WHERE FROM?

• Statistical overview – limited research available

• Analysis of coverage of TR – limited research available

I RECENT DEVELOPMENTS OF THE REGISTER

4

Statistical overview & recent growth

Transparency Register

GROWTH RATE OF REGISTRATIONS = 1 000 organisations/ year

EC REGISTER OF INTEREST REPRESENTATIVES JUNE 2011:

• Approx.

4 000 organisations

EU TRANSPARENCY REGISTER

MARCH 2014:

• Approx.

6 500 organisations (despite approx. 400 disbarments under new monitoring procedures)

6

500 registrat-ions in past 3 months = 5% growth

7

Transparency Register

8

Register statistics

Register statistics (24/02/14)

Transparency Register review

11

Background

• Review of TR foreseen by Interinstitutional Agreement (IIA) 2011

• Technical meetings held between stakeholder (European umbrella organisations) & JTRS in 2013

• Political meeting between EC Vice President Šefčovič & stakeholders in June 2013

• High Level WG (EP/EC) set up for the revision of the TR (all EP political groups represented)

• 9 meetings held between July-December 2013

• List of 30 measures for improvement made

• Revised draft Interinstitutional Agreement 2014

• Voted & approved in EP AFCO Committee 18 March 2014

12

Result of discussions of the Working Group

Political issues tackled

• Whether to move to a mandatory model of register

• Participation of Council in the scheme

Technical recommendations

• More incentives offered to registrants

• Level playing field across categories & more precise information required from registrants

• Clarifying the sections of registrants

• Update of Code of Conduct (applicable to all registered or not)

• Revised procedures for complaints & alerts

• Improvements to IT interface

• Update of guidance

13

Next steps

• EC approval & EP vote in plenary April 2014

• Signature of revised Interinstitutional Agreement 2014

• Implementation of 30 measures for improvement by latest 01 January 2015

• New review foreseen for latest 2017

14

Complexity of "lobbying" sector

Incentivise registration but also allow open access

to the EU institutions

Pressure for mandatory system but no clear legal basis

Promoting visibility & use of the Register

Ensuring widest possible sectoral coverage &

improving quality of data

Challenges Dealing more efficiently with

alerts & complaints

NUMBER OF REGISTRANTS WITH HEAD OFFICE IN EU COUNTRIES = approx . 90%:

BELGIUM = 1 541 SPAIN = 370 GERMANY = 779 FINLAND = 102 FRANCE = 676 POLAND = 82 UK = 617 BULGARIA = 34 ITALY = 544 ESTONIA = 5 ETC.

II COVERAGE – WHO & WHERE FROM?

15

NUMBER OF REGISTRANTS WITH HEAD OFFICE IN NON EU COUNTRIES (approx. 10%):

China = 2

USA = 151 Australia = 5

Switzerland = 106 Ukraine = 8

Norway = 53 Canada = 17

Turkey = 18 Russia = 5 etc.

16

Coverage

• A recent study in 2013 considered that • 75% of relevant actors in Section I (Public Affairs

Consultancies) are registered

• 60% of relevant actors in Section III (NGOs) are registered

• Law firms widely boycott the register

17