Lobby Transparency in the European Commission is significantly expanding. From now on, an additional 1100 officials (all in management roles) within the Commission will be required to publish their lobby meetings. Until now, this obligation only applied to EU Commissioners, their cabinets, and Director-Generals (around 400 individuals). In addition, it is no longer just required to publish that a meeting took place, but also the main arguments and conclusions must be made transparent as minutes.

Daniel Freund (MEP, Greens), member of the responsible Constitutional Affairs Committee, comments:

“The influence of lobbyists on EU policy is now much more visible. Lobbyists can no longer easily hide their work when meeting with EU officials. The expansion of mandatory lobby transparency to over 1500 managers in the European Commission is a great step forward for clean politics and a negotiation victory for us Greens. Expanding lobby transparency was one of the Greens’ demands before the Commission’s election.”

“To meet the expectation of clean and transparent politics in EU policy, lobby transparency must be further expanded in the future. This includes ensuring that all Commission staff involved in political matters are not allowed to meet with unregistered lobbyists. This requirement should not be limited to senior management. The new rules are good, but they will only have an effect once they are properly enforced. For this, the new EU Ethics Committee must finally begin its work.”

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The two Commission decisions

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=OJ:L_202403081

Commission Decision (EU) 2024/3081 of 4 December 2024 on transparency measures concerning meetings held between Members of the Commission and interest representatives, and repealing Decision 2014/839/EU, Euratom

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=OJ:L_202403082

Commission Decision (EU) 2024/3082 of 4 December 2024 on transparency measures concerning meetings held between Commission staff holding management functions and interest representatives, and repealing Decision 2014/838/EU, Euratom

The European Court of Auditors critical analysis of the EU Transparency Register

https://www.eca.europa.eu/en/publications/SR-2024-05 European Court of Auditors Special report 05/2024: EU Transparency Register – provides useful but limited information on lobbying activities