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ACTUAL ISSUES OF CONCLUDING INTERINSTITUTIONAL AGREEMENT ON A MANDATORY TRANSPARENCY REGISTER AND ITS PERSPECTIVES IN COUNTERING CORRUPTION IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

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PDF: Author(s): Belyaeva Yu. L.,
Number of journal: 2(47) Date: May 2019
Annotation:

Countering illegal lobbying is an element of the new anti‑corruption strategy of the European Union. This article is devoted to identifying the problematic aspects and prospects of execution of an Interinstitutional Agreement on a mandatory Transparency Register proposed by the European Commission for regulation of lobbying and countering corruption. The author presents the legal and doctrinal characteristics of lobbying in the European Union and defines the relationship between lobbying and corruption. Considering illegal lobbying as a form of corruption, the author reveals that the registration of lobbyists in the special European Commission and European Parliament common Transparency Register is an effective measure to counter political corruption in the EU institutions. The analysis of the current Agreement between the European Parliament and the European Commission on establishment of a Transparency Register for organizations and self‑employed individuals engaged in the EU policy‑making and policy implementation showed that the voluntary nature of registration and participation in the agreement of only two EU institutions weaken the effectiveness of implementation of measures for ensuring transparency of lobbying and countering corruption. In this regard, the author justifies the need of creation of a common unified system for mandatory registration of all EU interest representatives in the Transparency Register. The European Commission, realizing the need to strengthen the measures for legal regulation of lobbying, has already initiated a proposal for adoption of the Interinstitutional Agreement on the Mandatory Transparency Register, which implies the creation of a mandatory registration system in the Transparency Register for the European Commission, the European Parliament and with participation of the Council of EU, currently, negotiations are underway for its adoption. The author analyzed the activities of the EU member states in lobbying regulation, considered the prospects of concluding the agreement proposed by the European Commission, and identified the problematic aspects of the procedure for its adoption, as well as shortcomings of the chosen legal framework, and identified possible solutions.

Keywords:

countering corruption, lobbying, interests representatives, political corruption, Transparency Register, European Union, EU anti‑corruption strategy, countering illegal lobbying, Interinstitutional agreement on the mandatory Transparency Register, European Union law.

For citation:

Belyaeva Yu. L. Actual issues of concluding interinstitutional agreement on a mandatory transparency register and its perspectives in countering corruption in the European Union. Business. Education. Law, 2019, no. 2, pp. 302–308. DOI: 10.25683/VOLBI.2019.47.274.