The European Parliament together with the Council of the European Union and the European Commission maintain a single Transparency Register (hereinafter, the Register) that contains information about all lobbyists – private companies, associations, professional associations, self-employed etc. – with the aim to oversee lobbying activities. All persons planning to exercise influence on policy development and implementation and decision-making in the EU shall submit information for the Register and to obtain an online pass for in-person visits, for example, to the European Parliament through the EP Accredit Portal.

Previously, the holders of the pass could visit the building of the European Parliament freely. Now, at each visit to the European Parliament the lobbyists listed in the Register, regardless of whether they have the online pass in their personal account on the EP Accredit Portal or not, will have to activate it through a special terminal and indicate the objective of their visit – meeting with an MP or another employee of the European Parliament, attendance of a parliamentary session and/or another event etc. This information will remain confidential and will be stored only by the security unit of the European Parliament.

Marc Angel, MP supervising internal administrative issues, highlights that such strengthened measures of documenting whom and on what matter the lobbyists contact is due to the evident flaws of the procedure for regulating contacts with the lobbyists against the background of a big scandal concerning officials of the European Parliament*.

However, some experts criticised the decision of the European Parliament. For instance, Emma Brown, President of the Society of European Affairs Professionals points out that the new access mode to the European Parliament will increase unnecessary bureaucratic procedures and will lead to queues at the entrance to the European Parliament.

*A big corruption scandal around the European Parliament broke in 2022: investigators unveiled a massive crime scheme in which officials of the European Parliament took, through intermediaries, rewards for lobbying Qatar’s interests, in particular, for adopting resolutions aimed at improving the image of the country on the verge of the 2022 World Cup and making positive decisions on visa policy and energy cooperation. The case was initially labeled Qatargate by the name of the country against which the first public accusations were made, but in the course of the investigation it was established that officials of the European Parliament had been bribed by other countries as well, including Morocco (in the context of lobbying trade agreements and a fisheries agreement with the EU) and Mauritania (the country abolished slavery only in 1981 and tried to improve its international reputation through European MPs).

In December 2022, searchers in the homes and work places of officials of the European Parliament and their associates were conducted in Belgium and Italy, in the course of which wads of cash amounting to roughly €1.5 million were found and seized. Eight suspects were detained in the framework of the investigation, including:

• Eva Kaili, European MP from Greece and former Vice-President of the European Parliament;
• Francisco Giorgi, her partner;
• Antonio Panzeri, former European MP and co-founder of the not-for-profit organisation Fight Impunity;
• Marc Tarabella, European MP from Belgium;
• Andrea Cozzolino, European MP from Italy;
• Niccolò Figà-Talamanca, Secretary-General of the not-for-profit organisation No Peace Without Justice.

The investigation is still ongoing. The preventive measures with regard to most suspects were mitigated: they were released from detention, but remain under investigation.