” “”We are going to talk of the future of Europe at the June meeting, yet we can already draw a conclusion: we need to be more transparent and more responsible with the public if we want to preserve the legitimacy of the European decision-making process”. The focus is still the relation between the citizens and the EU bodies: this is what prompted the Green Book on the European initiative for transparency, which has been adopted yesterday by the Commission and presented by president José Manuel Barroso. In the limelight are above all lobbyism, the introduction of obligations for the member states to publish information on the beneficiaries of EU funds and other public practices that will allow “citizens to learn and understand” how the EU works, who benefits from what funds, under what “pressures the EU bodies are”. According to the Executive Committee, which with the Green Book intends to kick-start public talks about these matters to develop some provisions, there are “reservations on the lobbyist practices that are assumed to go beyond the legitimate defence of interests, such as for instance misinformation on the potential economic, social or environmental impact of bills of law, mass communication campaigns for or against any given cause and potential conflicts of interest”. In addition, they highlight the risk “there may be too much influence from some lobbies on the EU decision-making process”.
