Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-05-08-Speech-4-017"
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"en.20080508.3.4-017"2
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"Mr President, this House should welcome all initiatives which increase the transparency of the EU institutions, which is why I support the proposals before us today.
However, we must ensure that the nature of the work of each institution is also taken into account. Parliament to this end works in a wholly different way to the Council and at a different stage in the legislative process from the Commission. Taking this into account, a common single register for all institutions would, I believe, be very difficult to achieve and would in fact put in place an over-bureaucratic procedure for applying for access when lobbying only the Parliament. We are also an autonomous institution and I do not feel it is therefore appropriate for other institutions to dictate our policies in this area.
I would also like to raise an issue which has previously been brought up in this Chamber by a number of colleagues: how NGOs, in particular, are financed by the Commission and, in turn, use this money to lobby MEPs into taking certain positions. If the end result of what we are debating is to increase transparency, the House must be provided with a certain amount of non-commercially-sensitive data on how these organisations who lobby us are financed.
On a more general note, I express concern at the free access that some lobbyists have to Members’ office floors in this Parliament. Once in the building, people are freely able to walk around and have unrestricted access to private offices. Having the right to freely roam the building does nothing for transparency, but leads to malpractice by some individuals. I am sure Members have all experienced this. In many of our national parliaments, there are central lobby areas where lobbyists who have appointments can be greeted and escorted to Members’ office areas. We should, in my view, try to implement a similar system. Overall, I am pleased to see Parliament addressing the issue of transparency, but we must also ensure that the organisations who lobby us are just as transparent as we are."@en1
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