Madrid, 7 June 2013 – Access Info Europe notes with regret today’s ruling by the General Court of the European Court of Justice which upholds the European Commission’s refusal to make public documents about the EU-India Free Trade Agreement requested by the lobby watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory. The central question in the case Corporate Europe Observatory v European Commission revolves around whether or not dissemination of minutes of meetings and email correspondence would harm the EU’s international relations. The Court’s ruling is particularly regrettable given that these documents had been shared with representatives of the European and Indian business

The Transparency Register’s code of conduct for lobbyists needs to be strengthened during upcoming review Madrid/Brussels, 5 June 2013 – When lobby groups sign up to the EU’s voluntary lobby register [1] they agree to a code of conduct for lobbyists. This code however is currently weak and vaguely-worded, according to ALTER EU, a coalition campaigning for greater lobby transparency in the EU, of which Access Info Europe is an active member. The lack of clarity in the code of conduct, particularly about what constitutes “undue pressure” or “inappropriate behaviour” for lobbyists – alongside the absence of

Missed dead-line and no political will Brussels, 6 May 2013 – The Commission have prepared a State of Play (28/02/2013) outlining what progress had been made since its last State of Play (06/09/2012) and how far it has gone towards meeting the conditions outlined by the European Parliament in terms of preventing industry dominance of these influential advisory groups. However, while the Commission claims civil society has an important role to play in monitoring how it’s coming along, it has failed to make the State of Play public. ALTER-EU managed to obtain a copy, and in the name of transparency

  Brussels, 28 April 2013 – Whatever emerges as the real reason for Mr. Dalli’s resignation, the Dalli case shows that the Commission urgently needs more rigorous transparency and ethics rules to avoid undue influence. Instead of the current vaguely-worded Code of Conduct and Staff Regulation, the Commission needs clear rules around its contacts with lobbyists, for instance on matters like meetings set up by acquaintances acting as lobby consultants. There is also a need for stricter and mandatory ethics rules for lobbyists, replacing those laid out in the code of conduct connected to the voluntary Transparency Register.

Brussels, 18 April 2013 – Current flaws in the Transparency Register: • Far too many major players missing. Although the number of registrants has increased, far too many active lobby players are still not on the list. Law firms involved in lobbying continue to evade disclosure.

European Ombudsman investigates Commission’s alleged failure to tackle the Revolving Door Brussels, 14 February 2013 – Access Info’s steering committee colleagues Corporate Europe Observatory, Greenpeace, Lobbycontrol and Spinwatch, have together submitted a complaint to the European Ombudsman about the Commission’s repeated refusal to deal adequately with the potential conflicts of interest that could arise from the revolving door phenomenon. The complaint documents ten high-level cases in which staff rules have been breached, or where the Commission has clearly failed to ensure staff were aware of, or complied with the rules. The organisations that submitted the complaint argue that such cases

Clear the smoke in Brussels – demand lobbying transparency now! A major lobbying scandal has been unraveling in Brussels after one of the European Commission’s top officials was forced to resign following allegations of cash-for-influence. The tobacco industry claimed they’d been asked for tens of millions of euros by a lobbyist linked to health commissioner, John Dalli, in exchange for influencing EU tobacco policy. But with new tobacco legislation in the pipeline, there are fears that Dallimay have been caught in a tobacco industry set-up designed to delay changes the industry don’t want.