New Register to Clean up Decision Making in EU

Publication date: 
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Author: 
Martin Murphy
Media title: 
The Epoch Times

ALTER-EU has welcomed the launch of the “Transparency Register” but added that “while the new register will bring a number of improvements, several fundamental flaws remain. It is essential that these should be fixed as soon as possible.”

Excerpt: 

Earlier this week ALTER-EU published research which according to them showed the “massive extent of under-reporting in the old register.” ALTER-EU analysed declarations of the 40 biggest industry associations in the Commission lobby register and found likely under-reporting of lobby expenditure by ‘a very significant number of groups.’

“The transparency register does not yet live up to its name and it is crucial that it is continually strengthened. As supported by the European Parliament, mandatory registration should remain the long-term goal,” Erik Wesselius from ALTER-EU.