Transparency means proactive action: by adding a provision for a legislative footprint that identifies which interest-representatives key actors met, received, and heard from, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have a chance to turn the EP into a role model for parliamentary transparency in a pluralistic democracy.

Against a backdrop of past scandals and recent criticism about agreements negotiated behind closed doors, the European Parliament  is about to miss an opportunity to show that it takes its role as guarantor of legitimacy in EU decision-making seriously, argues Lukas Obholzer, in this new Policy Brief.

Lukas Obholzer is a PhD student at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Visiting Researcher at CEPS.