EUROPA - The European Transparency Initiative

Welcome to the Consultation on the European Transparency Initiative

The Green Paper
This Website
The Consultation Process
After the consultation: next steps

The Green Paper

The Commission launched the European Transparency Initiative on 9 November 2005. This Green Paper is a key component of the Initiative and is the starting-point for this consultation. The consultation will allow stakeholders to have their say on three aspects of transparency in the European Union. These are covered by the three chapters of the Green Paper:

Transparency and Interest Representation: this part will underpin a debate on lobbying activities in the EU

The Commission’s minimum standards for consultation: this part will provide a structured framework for feedback on the application of the standards.

Publication of Data on Beneficiaries of EU Funds: this part will launch a debate on the disclosure of data about the recipients of various EU funds managed by the Commission in partnership with Member States, notably the Structural Funds and Common Agricultural Policy.

This Website

This website provides all the information you need to take part in the consultation. You can download key reference documents for the consultation.

The Green Paper describes the issues under consultation and contains the corresponding questions to which you should respond directly.

The Communication on the Minimum Standards for Consultation sets out the principles and minimum standards which the Commission seeks to apply in its consultation processes. These standards are under review in chapter two of the Green Paper.

You can find links to additional information via the buttons Find out more and Other useful links on the left-hand menu.

The Consultation Process

This consultation opens on 3 May and closes on 31 August 2006. By clicking on the button Submit your Contribution, you can follow the step-by-step instructions to send your contributions. Please take the time first to read the following important guidelines carefully:

You must submit one document for each chapter of the Green Paper on which you wish to comment. This is important as contributions will be processed separately.
Note for private citizens: your contribution will only be published on this website if you give explicit permission for your name to appear as author of the text.
Note for civil society organisations: if you are not registered in CONECCS, the Commission’s database of civil society organisations active at the EU-level, you will be asked to provide some basic information about your organisation in each contribution you submit.
Please make sure that the name of your organisation appears on the first page of each contribution so that the contributions can be easily attributed to the participants.
If you are not a Microsoft Word user, you can download a separate PDF document for each chapter on which you wish to comment and copy the text of your contribution into that file.

Your contributions will be published in due course on this website under the section Read the contributions.

The consultation is subject to data privacy rules. A privacy policy statement specifies how your personal data will be used. The Commission will publish comments received on this website in the format in which they are received. These should therefore not contain confidential information.

After the consultation: next steps

The Commission will analyse the results of this consultation in a report to be published on this website. The report will present a summary of the results. Please be aware that the Commission will not respond to interested parties individually about their contributions.

On the basis of this consultation, the Commission will consider what concrete measures it may be appropriate to take in order to enhance transparency in the EU.

Thank you for your interest in the consultation process. We look forward to receiving your contribution. You can continue to navigate on this site from the top of the page.

The Green Paper

COM(2006)194

Communication:
Minimum Standards for Consultation