transparency
November 22, 2012 - 11:06
“The Dalli case shows the system works,” an EU official told a public debate in Brussels last week, following a question on whether new ethics and transparency reforms will follow the Dalli-gate lobby scandal. The Commission is clearly in denial. The ex-Commissioner's resignation may still be shrouded in mystery, but the need for greater transparency and tighter rules to prevent undue influence could not be more clear. A quick look at lobby transparency systems in Canada and elsewhere can be instructive on this. CEO argues that a more robust, mandatory and better implemented system of lobby transparency in the EU would have prevented an unregistered lobbyist embroiling a high-level policy maker in a cash for access scandal.
September 18, 2012 - 10:51
Since the start of the eurocrisis, the European Commission has gained significant new powers to monitor and intervene in government budgets at a member-state level in the name of ‘economic governance’. But power must be accountable.
July 25, 2012 - 15:33
July 23, 2012 - 16:30
It seems as if barely a week goes past these days without a high-level summit taking place in Brussels to discuss issues relating to the euro-zone crisis. Much has been said about the roots of the crisis but no one can deny that in the background is the lack of trust that people have in their national politicians and European institutions.
July 11, 2012 - 10:44
It is now 16 months since the cash-for-influence scandal rocked the European Parliament and led to the resignation of two MEPs (Ernest Strasser and Zoran Thaler). A third MEP, Adrian Severin of Romania was sacked by the Socialist group but refused to resign from the Parliament.
July 10, 2012 - 18:57
It is now 16 months since the cash-for-influence scandal rocked the European Parliament and led to the resignation of two MEPs (Ernest Strasser and Zoran Thaler). A third MEP, Adrian Severin of Romania was sacked by the Socialist group but refused to resign from the Parliament. After the scandal, MEPs developed a new Code of Conduct aimed at preventing this from happening again, but it only came in on 1 January 2012 and cannot be applied retrospectively. So what happened next to Severin?
July 4, 2012 - 14:40
The Transparency Register has not been the success the Commission claims it is. In a recent article in the European Voice (“A year of living transparently”, 21-27 June), Maroš Šefcovic, the European commissioner for administration, describes the Transparency Register as “a great success” and highlights it as proof of the EU institutions’ efforts to be “as transparent as possible”.
Corporate Europe Observatory
Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) is a research and campaign group working to expose and challenge the privileged access and influence enjoyed by corporations and their lobby groups in EU policy making.
All content on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
