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Missed dead-line and no political will Brussels, 6 May 2013 – The Commission have prepared a State of Play (28/02/2013) outlining what progress had been made since its last State of Play (06/09/2012) and how far it has gone towards meeting the conditions outlined by the European Parliament in terms of preventing industry dominance of these influential advisory groups. However, while the Commission claims civil society has an important role to play in monitoring how it’s coming along, it has failed to make the State of Play public. ALTER-EU managed to obtain a copy, and in the name of transparency

  Brussels, 28 April 2013 – Whatever emerges as the real reason for Mr. Dalli’s resignation, the Dalli case shows that the Commission urgently needs more rigorous transparency and ethics rules to avoid undue influence. Instead of the current vaguely-worded Code of Conduct and Staff Regulation, the Commission needs clear rules around its contacts with lobbyists, for instance on matters like meetings set up by acquaintances acting as lobby consultants. There is also a need for stricter and mandatory ethics rules for lobbyists, replacing those laid out in the code of conduct connected to the voluntary Transparency Register.

Brussels, 18 April 2013 – Current flaws in the Transparency Register: • Far too many major players missing. Although the number of registrants has increased, far too many active lobby players are still not on the list. Law firms involved in lobbying continue to evade disclosure.