ADVERTISEMENTThe European Commission says it will improve transparency by publishing records of all meetings between senior officials and lobbyists.
It also said documents relating to EU-US free trade talks would be handed to MEPs.
“We have moved from a time where government used to have an attitude towards the public of ‘trust me!’, to a situation now where the public says to government ‘show me!’, and we want to show, very clearly, we want to be fully transparent about the meetings we have,” said Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans.
There will be no independent watchdog to enforce the EU executive’s promise.
It will be up to each individual to be abide by the new strategy.
Olivier Hoedeman campaigns for more transparency inside EU institutions. He says there are still loopholes in the proposal.
“I got the impression from the speech today that it only will cover, at least in the initial version a quite narrow range, only the very top of the commission-apparatus. and that will not provide real transparency around lobbying,” Hoedeman told euronews.
The new guidelines will only apply to commissioners, members of their cabinets, and director-generals.