EU member-state governments have agreed a position on their participation in a mandatory EU transparency register after more than a year of debate, following proposals put forward by the European Commission in September 2016.
Member-state representatives decided on 6 December that lobbyists will need to be listed in the transparency register to be able to meet senior staff of the secretariat that supports the European Council and Council of Ministers, and to gain access to Council premises.
The Green group of MEPs labelled the Council’s move towards transparency a “breakthrough”, but said that the member states had agreed to less than the Commission proposed. Leaving the six-month rotating presidencies of the Council and the Council’s permanent EU representatives out of the agreement “dramatically reduces the scope, and therefore the utility” of the register, the group said.
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