Civil Society Contact Group aims at strengthening the code of conduct for interest representatives

The EU Civil Society Contact Group supports efforts to improve transparency in interest representation towards the EU institutions. The proposed code of conduct for interest representatives however is weak and unlikely to improve the current situation. In the hope that the Commission will improve on the draft code, the Civil Society Contact Group has put together in its contribution to the consultation a series of remarks on the proposed code and the framework in which it is presented:

• the following elements should be addressed in the code: conflicts of interest, improper influence, misrepresentation, financial inducements, employment of former EU officials
•  an independent monitoring body to deal with complaints, including for citizens and public interest organizations, with the ability to start own initiative investigations should be set up
• EU officials who witness that interest representatives are breaching the code, should have a formal duty to report such breaches

Furthermore

• the wording of the code should also reflect the realities of public interest groups
• the code should also apply to individual lobbyists in order to enhance a sense of personal responsibility and integrity
• all interest representatives who wish to be included in the register and lobby the EU institutions should sign on to the same code
• submission of inaccurate information and breaches of the code should be publicly announced
• the code should be drafted so that it could function, at a later stage, as a single code of conduct for all institutions especially for the European Commission and the European Parliament

Find here the Civil Society Contact Group contribution.