PURPOSE: to make use of existing cooperation tools and digital gateways established at Union level for the purpose of facilitating the implementation of the proposed Directive establishing harmonised requirements in the internal market on transparency of interest representation carried out on behalf of third countries.

PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council.

ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.

BACKGROUND: this proposal accompanies the Commission’s proposal for a Directive establishing harmonised requirements in the internal market on transparency of interest representation carried out on behalf of third countries with a view to improving the functioning of the internal market by achieving a common level of transparency across the Union.

The proposed Directive would require Member States to set up and maintain national registers for the purpose of ensuring transparency of interest representation activities carried out by entities, as well as to designate authorities responsible for these registers. In addition, the proposed Directive would require Member States to designate supervisory authorities having the responsibility to supervise the compliance with and enforcing the obligations set out in the proposed Directive, as well as to exchange information with the supervisory authorities in other Member States and the Commission, where authorised to do so under the proposed Directive.

CONTENT: the proposed regulation is of technical nature and accompanies the proposed Directive establishing harmonised requirements in the internal market on transparency of interest representation carried out on behalf of third countries with a view to improving the functioning of the internal market by achieving a common level of transparency across the Union.

The administrative cooperation and the exchange of information between the competent national authorities, as well as the Commission, provided for by the proposed Directive should be implemented through the Internal Market Information System (‘ IMI system ’) established by Regulation (EU) No 1024/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council. For that reason, the necessary administrative cooperation procedures should be established in the IMI system.

In addition, in order to minimise the administrative burden on legal entities and natural persons falling within the scope of the proposed Directive, Regulation (EU) 2018/1724 of the European Parliament and of the Council should be amended to provide for easy online access to information on the rights and obligations stemming from the Directive, as well as to ensure that access to and completion of the procedure for registration required by the Directive can be made fully online.