INFORMATION ON MEETINGS HELD BY MEMBERS OF THE EC

Since 1 December 2014 Commissioners, their Cabinets and Director-Generals publish their meetings and only meet with lobbyists registered in the EU Transparency Register. The Commission also pledged to ensure an appropriate balance and representativeness in the stakeholders they meet.

Members of the Commission are required to make public information on all meetings held by them and members of their Cabinet with organisations or self-employed individuals on issues relating to policy-making and implementation in the Union. The information to be made public consists of the date of the meeting, the location, the name of the Member of the Commission and/or member of the Cabinet, the name of the organisation or self-employed individual and the subject of the meeting.

The following definitions apply:

(a) "meeting" means a bilateral encounter organised at the initiative of an organisation or self-employed individual or a Member of the Commission and/or a member of his/her Cabinet to discuss an issue related to policy-making and implementation in the Union. Encounters taking place in the context of an administrative procedure established by the Treaties or Union acts, which falls under the direct responsibility of the Member of the Commission, as well as encounters of a purely private or social character or spontaneous encounters are excluded from this notion;

(b) "organisation or self-employed individual" means any organisation or individual, irrespective of their legal status, engaged in activities carried out with the objective of directly or indirectly influencing the formulation or implementation of policy and the decision-making processes of the institutions of the Union, irrespective of where these activities are undertaken and of the channel or medium of communication used. This notion does not include representatives of other Union institutions or bodies, national, regional and local authorities of Member States and of third countries or international organisations. However, it covers any association or network created to represent regions or other sub-national public authorities collectively.

Exceptions

This requirement does not apply to meetings held with social partners at Union level in the context of the social dialogue, or to meetings held in the context of the dialogue with churches, religious associations or communities, as well as with philosophical and non-confessional organisations . It does not apply to meetings held with representatives of political parties.

The required information must be published in a standardised format on the websites of the Members of the Commission within a period of two weeks following the meeting. The publication of the information may be withheld where such publication could undermine the protection of one of the following interests, in particular the life, the integrity or privacy of an individual, the financial, monetary or economic policy of the Union, the market stability or sensitive commercial information, the proper conduct of court proceedings or inspections, investigations, audits or other administrative procedures; or the protection of any other important public interest recognised at Union level.

The names of individuals (acting on behalf of organisations or self-employed individuals) or Commission officials (other than members of the Cabinets) attending meetings are not to be made public unless they have unambiguously given their consent. The organisations and self-employed individuals are informed of the fact that the information will be made public.