Civil society and the Parliamentary Assembly: towards greater transparency and engagement
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Text
adopted by the Standing Committee, acting on behalf of
the Assembly, on 29 November 2024 (see Doc. 16067, report of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human
Rights, rapporteur: Ms Azadeh Rojhan).See also Recommendation 2287 (2024).
1. In the Reykjavik Declaration adopted
at the 4th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Council of
Europe (16-17 May 2023), the heads of State and government reaffirmed
that “civil society is a prerequisite for a functioning democracy”.
The Parliamentary Assembly welcomes this recognition. The role that
civil society plays in the work of the Assembly and in the democratic
life of Council of Europe member States is to be celebrated and
protected.
2. While the exchange of information and ideas with public decision
makers is a vital part of democracy, it is also crucial that this
exchange is sufficiently transparent. The Assembly has led calls
for greater transparency of lobbying, through
Recommendation 1908 (2010) “Lobbying
in a democratic society (European code of good conduct on lobbying)”,
Resolution 1744 (2010) “Extra-institutional
actors in the democratic system” and
Resolution 1943 (2013) “Corruption
as a threat to the rule of law”. Since the adoption of these texts,
lobbying regulations have proliferated in different member States.
Such regulations usually cover the activity of a wide range of actors,
including lobbyists working for commercial interests (either in-house
or as consultants), non-governmental organisations, think tanks,
trade unions and trade associations.
3. The Assembly recognises the need to prepare its own regulations
on the work of these actors to ensure transparency and good practice.
When doing so, it will use the term “interest representative” to
refer to any individual or organisation that carries out activities
with the objective of influencing the policy, guidelines or decision
making of Council of Europe bodies.
4. Meanwhile, the Assembly is concerned by reports suggesting
that it has become less accessible to civil society. In the Reykjavik
Declaration, the heads of State and government called for a review
and for the further reinforcement of the Organisation’s outreach
to, and meaningful engagement with, civil society organisations and
national human rights institutions. The Assembly intends to play
a leading role in this context, by reviewing and further reinforcing
its own outreach to, and meaningful engagement with, these groups.
5. In this context, the Assembly welcomes the “Secretary General’s
Roadmap on the Council of Europe’s Engagement with Civil Society
2024-2027” as a positive step in the follow-up to the Reykjavik
Declaration. The Assembly calls on the Secretary General to proceed
with the implementation of the road map as soon as possible and
takes note of the proposals for practical measures which the Assembly
could put into action.
6. The Assembly therefore resolves to increase its exchanges
with civil society, while simultaneously increasing the transparency
of its exchanges with interest representatives as a whole.
7. Noting the need to increase the transparency of the work of
interest representatives, the Assembly resolves to ensure that their
co-operation with the Assembly is governed by a code of conduct,
taking into account the possible development of a framework code
of conduct applicable to the Organisation as a whole.
8. The code of conduct applicable to interest representatives
who engage with the Assembly should ensure the protection of freedom
of expression and of association, and comply with relevant international
standards (including Recommendation CM/Rec(2017)2 of the Committee
of Ministers to member States on the legal regulation of lobbying
activities in the context of public decision making). At a minimum,
the future code should:
8.1 require
interest representatives to declare their name and who they work
for, the interests and objectives they promote, and the legal or
natural persons that they represent, when interacting with parliamentarians,
their staff or members of the secretariats of the Assembly and its
political groups;
8.2 require interest representatives to act honestly and in
good faith;
8.3 prohibit interest representatives from having conflicts
of interest;
8.4 prohibit interest representatives from using undue pressure,
offensive language or other improper behaviour;
8.5 prohibit interest representatives from inducing parliamentarians,
their staff or members of the secretariats of the Assembly and its
political groups from contravening the rules and standards applicable
to them.
9. The Assembly further resolves to examine possible changes
to the code of conduct for members of the Assembly which would increase
the transparency of exchanges with interest representatives, also
in compliance with the principles of Recommendation CM/Rec(2017)2,
for example, by extending the prohibition on the seeking or taking
of instructions to a wider range of members fulfilling important
functions, such as chairpersons of committees and sub-committees,
leaders of political groups, members of the Bureau of the Assembly
and the President of the Assembly.
10. Noting the need to review and further reinforce its outreach
to, and meaningful engagement with, civil society, the Assembly
resolves to:
10.1 make more committee
meetings open to the public, by agreeing that all committee hearings
will be open to the public as a general rule and considering including
such a principle in the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly;
10.2 examine the feasibility of regular exchanges between civil
society and Assembly members, for example with the Presidential
Committee or the Bureau of the Assembly.
11. The Assembly resolves to examine further steps to increase
the accessibility of its work, including by:
11.1 making it easier for civil society to participate in part-sessions
of the Assembly, for example by providing civil society representatives
with the opportunity to register directly to have access to Council of
Europe premises, simplifying the process for civil society to participate
and organise side events (by decreasing the time that such requests
need to be made in advance and by making more rooms available),
providing a dedicated office space for civil society and allowing
civil society to reserve meeting rooms;
11.2 making more information available to civil society members
attending the Assembly’s sessions, such as through information sessions
for civil society at the beginning of each Assembly session conducted
by the Secretariat and by producing a practical written guide on
how to engage with the Assembly;
11.3 ensuring that introductory memoranda and minutes of public
hearings are declassified as a general rule;
11.4 making the Assembly’s work more accessible online, including
through greater use of live-streaming of public hearings, making
introductory memoranda and other committee documents available on
the Assembly’s website at an earlier stage, creating a user-friendly
web page that describes reports currently under preparation and
how external actors can make an input to them, and making it possible
to subscribe to e-mail updates for the work of each committee.
12. Any changes to the Assembly’s Rules of Procedure required
to implement this Resolution will be introduced through a subsequent
resolution to be adopted on the basis of a report by the Committee
on Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional Affairs.
13. Finally, the Assembly is concerned by the development of legislation
or government bodies in several member States, ostensibly to address
the transparency of foreign funding of civil society organisations
and not-for-profit media outlets. The Assembly notes that the positive
goal of transparency has been manipulated in certain “foreign agent”
laws to undermine the operation or existence of legitimate groups,
by using excessive regulation to create an atmosphere of mistrust
and a chilling effect on civil society. This was most notable in the
Russian Federation, leading the European Court of Human Rights to
find violations of the European Convention on Human Rights (ETS
No. 5) for 73 non-governmental organisations in the case of Ecodefence and Others v. Russia.
The Assembly expresses its deep concern that measures to address
“foreign agents” in a number of member States, including Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Hungary and Georgia, will also damage civil society’s
work in favour of human rights, democracy and the rule of law, and
will make it more difficult, or even impossible, for civil society
to engage with international organisations.
