The new Transparency Register was to end the opaque lobbying practices dogging the EU, but will it be effective? We ask a leading MEP on the issue Sylvie Guillaume.

Building greater transparency in EU lobbying

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/11965191/n004-0020-en.srt

Do lobbyists really influence  the decision-makers in the EU institutions?

Are they useful or harmful  to the functioning of democracy?

Does the new transparency register  that came into force on 1 January this year

allow better control over  the practices of lobbyists?

We met Sylvie Guillaume, Vice President  of the EP. She responded to our questions.

We'll start with the first question right away.

It comes from Olivier Hoedeman from  an NGO that campaigns for transparency.

The European Commission is proposing  a new inter-institutional agreement

Don't you think that for the lobby register  to be properly mandatory

we need legislation, so it becomes  legally binding for lobbyists to sign up

If you want to summarise it, it's basically  the question over mandatory or voluntary.

Although it's been a long-standing  and important demand of the Parliament

for the moment we don't have that.  But it is still a demand.

It's complicated to put in place,  because if we take the long-term view

we require unanimity in the Council,  and that's not so easy.

But when you see that two-thirds  of the banks and financial groups

that lobby in the European Union  haven't signed up to this register,

isn't that proof of the failure  of this voluntary approach?

It's certainly not very good. We need  to change the practices of lobbyists

and also to exert pressure  for better practices.

that favour this registration,  we can make things change.

from KPMG, a consulting company.  Here it is.

Our firm has been on the ETI since 2012.

I would not expect major changes  in the way we work

In your view, will the register be sufficient  to tackle unethical behaviour? Thank you.

Of course not. Pressure groups,  lobbies and interest groups

that want to act in ways that  are borderline when it comes to legality,

could and will continue to operate  in a covert way.

But those people will quickly  come up against limitations.

We want to make these links more ethical.

We want to make the existing practices  more transparent for the public.

which would translate in mandatory  registration being the complete answer

for good practices  within the European institutions.

It's from Pieter Cleppe from Open Europe.

When making  the transparency register mandatory,

probably we should have safeguards  to protect the privacy of lawyers' clients.

And also what about journalists?  Should they also register?

These are questions  that are quite important.

On top of that, we should  probably also make it mandatory

for MEPs to disclose  how and who they are meeting.

We need to be sufficiently clear and exact  about what we're bringing in as regulations.

But at the same time we aren't going  to regulate meetings that might take place

on the Thalys train for French people  or at other times.

What I mean by that is that  this question of transparency

is one of political morals,  of political practices,

That's what our fellow citizens  expect from MEPs.

So it's very much by listening to  the information that we might be given

that we will be helped to formulate  papers about our thinking,

but also the free will we have over  our practices will keep things in balance.

Have you had temptations, influences  from lobbyists and how did you react?

I'm lucky, in a way,  or I'm sufficiently distanced

linked to the economy or trade  or industry or competition.

So I think the lobbies are less interested  in talking to me

when I talk about migration, asylum,  fundamental rights or human rights.

There's less at stake for pressure groups.