Trust in EU institutions

The European Committee launched the European Transparency Initiative in November, 2005. Among other organizations, HCLU also expressed its opinion and shared its comments on the green paper being released on this issue.

The European Transparency Initiative (ETI) is the direct result of the recognition that transparency may increase faith in EU institutions. In addition, transparency regulation is the cornerstone of legitimacy within modern administrations. High scale transparency may assist in establishing a more open and responsible European Union. Besides the above, the strategy for 2005-2009 includes the extension of the roles of active participants in European policy making. The European Committee launched its partnership program for exactly this purpose as well.

The initiative practically means releasing a 'green paper' in order to identify the most important questions and problems while drawing those interested, into the dialogue (including member states, civil and lobby organizations and public institutions). As a result of the consultation, the Committee will release a 'white paper' which will be the base of any further legislation.

In this case the consultation period was 3 May – 31 Aug, 2006. The green paper included the following issues: the need for more detailed rules for lobby organizations’ activities; feedback on the Committee’s consultation and lastly compulsory publication of information on beneficiaries of divided resources. One of the great advantages of the consultation is that the committee publishes all the opinions, making them available for everyone.

HCLU has also participated in the consultation process sharing its experiences gained within the debate of the Hungarian Lobby Act. HCLU argued for the highest transparency of the lobbying activity and for sanctioning of illegal lobbying. HCLU did not comment on the second topic which debated the minimum requirements of the consultation. The reason was the lack of such experiences. Regarding the third topic, the information of the beneficiaries of divided resources, HCLU has expressed its strong opinion on the compulsory publicity of beneficiaries both of state and EU sources. Therefore it is our opinion that the need for a free and public register of all of these is a must.

Share

Related articles

Profit-making through FOI?

A draft bill on the re-use of public sector information submitted to the Hungarian Parliament by the government would make the national FOI legislation highly unpredictable - according to the HCLU and K-Monitor, major Hungarian NGOs working for transparency and freedom of information. The proposal intends to harmonize Hungarian freedom of information legislation with the EU law by implementing the 2003/98/EC Directive on the re-use of public sector information. The latter is to be revised soon, due to a proposal of the European Commission. The HCLU and K-Monitor ask legislative authorities to withdraw their draft proposal due to the following reasons.

Read more »

Whistleblower Protection in Central and Eastern Europe

K-Monitor Association and the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union organized a project on Legal Regulation of Public Interest Disclosures in Post-Soviet Democracies. The two Hungarian NGOs created a virtual conference on whistleblowing protection with an interactive discussion surface in English as well as an online content in form of this website. For the implementation of the “virtual conference”, K-Monitor and HCLU also invited NGOs working in the field of anti-corruption from Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Poland, Moldova and Hungary to take part in the project.

Read more »

HCLU Builds Freedom of Information Network

September 28th is International Information Freedom Day, alias ’Right to Know Day’. The HCLU celebrates the occasion by launching its new Freedom of Information Lawyers Network.

Read more »