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In search of integrity and
accountabilityBy Simon Taylor
03.09.2009 / 12:43 CET
The European Transparency Initiative aimed to
increase financial accountability and ensure the
good conduct of officials.
Siim Kallas, the European commissioner foradministration, has
always set the increased supervision
of EU lobbying in a wider context: his European
Transparency Initiative (ETI) launched in November
2005. The two main themes were to increase financial
accountability and ensure the good conduct and
personal integrity of EU politicians and officials.
He proposed that greater financial accountability would
be achieved by publishing data about who received EU
money from the structural and cohesion funds, from the
Common Agricultural Policy and the Common Fisheries
Policy.
Personal integrity would be improved by a new code of
ethics for those working for all EU institutions, based on
the code of conduct for Commissioners, and including
MEPs. The integrity drive would also be extended to
lobbyists who would be covered by a register.
Kallas envisaged four areas for action: greater
transparency for interest representatives through a new
register and code of conduct; greater transparency
about the use of EU funds through publication of data
about recipients; revision of the rules on access to EU
documents; and ethical standards for public officials.
Use of EUfunds
His greatest success has been on transparency over the
use of EU funds. The European Commission started
publishing details on end-beneficiaries of programmes
that it directly manages in 2006. From 2008 member
states were obliged to publish information about
beneficiaries of money from the structural funds.
This June, member states were required to publish
details about recipients of funds under the Common
Agricultural Policy. Only Germany failed to comply fully
by the deadline because data for the state of Bavaria
was not released. This information was subsequently
made public.
Negotiations between the European Parliament and the
Council of Ministers on a proposal to revise the rules on
public access to documents held by EU institutions will
continue this autumn.
The least successful part of the ETI has been Kallas's
attempt to get MEPs and those working in other EU
institutions than the Commission to agree on a common
code of conduct.
2009 European Voice. All rights reserved.
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James - Thursday, 22 October 2009
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