Complaint to the Commisssion's Secreteriat-General on Expert Groups

Publication date: 
Friday, October 23, 2009

In July 2009, ALTER-EU filed a complaint to the Commission's Secreteriat General raising several issues around the role of expert groups.

The Commission replied on October 2009. From this response it is clear that the problem of corporate capture of a large part of the Commission's advisory structure remains unresolved.

Executive summary / policy recommendations: 
  1. Complete membership disclosure
  2. Apply consultation rules to all the groups, including those dealing with technical issues
  3. Accept that industry dominated groups do not comply with the rules and then act
    accordingly
  4. Introduce new selection criteria
  5. Publicise the reasons why the names of some experts remain undisclosed
  6. Ban lobbyists and corporate executives from sitting in expert groups in a “personal capacity”
Document types: