| Directory
Information regarding non-profit making organizations
is currently held within the Commission in a dispersed and fragmented
way by individual departments and is consequently difficult to consult.
It is desirable to integrate this data into a single directory and
to thereby make this information tool complete. The new directory
will include reference to relevant information on special interest
groups held by other institutions, for example the Economic and
Social Committee and the European Parliament.
This instrument will be useful both for Commission
officials and outside parties. The setting up, production and maintenance
of the Directory could best be contracted out to the private sector
but entries should be supervised by the Commission.
The Directory could contain the following information:
- name of the organization,
- address/telephone/telefax,
- date of foundation,
- legal status and structure,
- names of senior officials,
- names of member oganizations,
- principal objectives of the organization.
Inclusion in the Directory will not confer any
form of official recognition by the Commission, nor the granting
of any other privileges such as special access to information, buildings,
officials, etc. Responsibility for the information provided, as
well as for its accuracy, will necessarily remain that of the organization
listed.
With regard to profit making lobby organizations,
such as consultancies, legal advisors, public relations/public policy
and other private firms, it is difficult for the Commission to define
exactly those which should or should not be included in a directory.
The Commission therefore encourages the lobby sector to draw up
its own directory, containing all the relevant information. Above
all, the register which the European Parliament intends to create
on lobbies will undoubtedly provide the Commission's staff with
another useful source of information.
The Commission intends to work closely with the
European Parliament on the subject of special interest groups. In
this collaboration the Parliament could emerge as the driving force
in the establishment and management of the above instruments.
L'objectif est de constituer une base de données
commune aux deux institutions, quitte à ce qu'elles tirent
des conséquences différentes de l'utilisation des
données en question.
The objective is to construct a common database
for both institutions even if this means that the data in question
is used for different purposes by each institution.
The Commission's data gathering exercise on non-profit making organizations
and the European Parliament's one will therefore be consolidated
in a single data-base.
Code of conduct 
There should be a broad understanding between the
Commission and special interest groups on some basic rules of conduct.
Over the course of many years, both have followed principles of
conduct which the Commission would like to see the special interest
groups (profit and non-profit making) continue to adhere to. The
Commission therefore encourages the sectors concerned to draw up
their own code of conduct. Many of these organizations already have
experience in this field and are consequently best placed to establish
and enforce such a code. The minimum requirements for a code should
include the principles listed in Annex II. Should individual lobbying
organizations wish to operate according to a stricter code of conduct
than the one outlined, they are clearly free to do so.
The Commission feels that special interest groups
have to be given a chance to organize themselves freely and without
interference from the public sector. The Commission reserves the
right to review the situation, however, particularly as far as profit
making organizations are concerned.
Commission staff's rights
and obligations
Title II of the Staff Regulations provides a sufficient
and appropriate means of regulating the behaviour of Commission
employees in this context. Provisions under this Title of particular
importance in relation to lobbyists are: receiving gifts (Article
11); engagement in outside activities (Article 12);employment after
leaving the service (Article 16); discretion with regard to information
and documents (Article 17) and the declaration of a spouse's employment
if a conflict of interest arises (Article 13). In addition to a
recently published administrative notice, more specific guidelines
have been prepared and these will shortly be circulated for the
attention of all Commission staff.
DG IX will clarify Commission contracts with temporary
staff in order to make them conform with the provisions under Title
II of the Staff Regulations.
In line with the proposals of a working group on
Article 16 of the Staff Regulations, a committee will be established,
as from 1 January 1993, to prepare the Commission's position on
each instance of a possible conflict of interest between a member
of staff's employment after leaving the Commission and his or her
responsibilities whilst at the Commission. In due course, the committee
will evolve its own criteria for assessment as a result of handling
successive individual cases. This committee will be composed of
the Secretary-General, the Directors-General of DG IX, the Legal
Service, and two other Directors-General. The Director-General of
the employee's service will also be called upon by the committee
on an ad hoc basis.
Commission's Communication of 2nd Decembre 1992
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