Updated EU transparency rules set for the end of this year means
lobbyists will have to declare much more accurate - and thus likely
larger - figures on what they spend to influence EU decision-making.
The figures currently cited in the EU's joint transparency register are widely suspected of being under-reported.
The register is shared between the European Commission and the European Parliament, and lists thousands of companies, consultancies and NGOs that work to influence EU legislation.
The authority that oversees the register recently announced in a letter it would impose clearer rules to make sure lobbyists do not skirt their reporting obligations.
The issue came to a head when pro-transparency group Corporate Europe Observatory complained that the US giant Monsanto had failed to truly declare how much it spent in a campaign to steer the debate around its controversial weedkiller glyphosate.
Read more: Lobbyist register to be tightened after Monsanto case
The figures currently cited in the EU's joint transparency register are widely suspected of being under-reported.
The register is shared between the European Commission and the European Parliament, and lists thousands of companies, consultancies and NGOs that work to influence EU legislation.
The authority that oversees the register recently announced in a letter it would impose clearer rules to make sure lobbyists do not skirt their reporting obligations.
The issue came to a head when pro-transparency group Corporate Europe Observatory complained that the US giant Monsanto had failed to truly declare how much it spent in a campaign to steer the debate around its controversial weedkiller glyphosate.
Read more: Lobbyist register to be tightened after Monsanto case
