In November 2011, concerns over the “domination” of the European Commission expert groups by business interests led the European Parliament to freeze the budget for expert groups. In September 2012, the Parliament released the budget on the understanding that expert groups would significantly improve based on conditions set by the EP which would ensure that MEPs and the Commission would work together through an “Informal Dialogue”.
This month, MEPs again asked the Parliament to withhold the Commission’s budget to force the Commission to ensure that expert groups are as transparent and balanced as possible. MEPs believe the Commission is underestimating the importance and extent of the problem and therefore failed to oversee the improvement of expert groups.
Tasked with providing input from stakeholders in areas where the Commission lacks internal expertise, experts groups are frequently dominated by corporate lobbyists. As a consequence big business interests play a big role in shaping EU laws. German Green MEP Helga Trupel is very concerned about these one-sided expert groups that ultimately lead to biased expertise.
Earlier this month, Ms Trupel tabled an amendment to place €3.8 million of the commission's 2015 EU budget under reserve until the executive meets the parliament’s demands.
MEPs demand the Commission to open public calls for applications, guarantee a balance of views, publish on-line agendas, minutes, and participants’ submissions and to ban lobbyists and corporate executives from attending expert groups in a “personal capacity”.
For more information please read the ALTER-EU, AK EUROPA and ÖGB Europabüro report “A Year of Broken Promises” on “Big business still put in charge of EU Expert Groups, despite commitment to reform”.