Transparency should characterise the work of all the Members of the Commission and of their Cabinets. 

Contacts with stakeholders should be conducted with transparency and Members of the Commission should seek to ensure an appropriate balance and representativeness in the stakeholders they meet. Transparency is of particular importance where specific interests related to the Commission’s work on legislative initiatives or financial matters are discussed with professional organisations or individuals. Members of the Commission must not meet professional organisations or self-employed individuals which are not registered in the Transparency Register. All Members of the Commission are expected to make public, on their respective web pages, all the contacts and meetings held in their capacity with professional organisations or self-employed individuals on any matter relating to EU policymaking and implementation, unless compelling reasons of public interest, such as those provided for in Article 4 of Regulation 1049/2001 on access to documents, require confidentiality¹⁷ . These obligations also apply to their Cabinet members and the DirectorsGeneral of the Commission.

Under the Code of Conduct¹⁸ for the Members of the European Commission, the Commission publishes an overview of mission expenses per Member of the Commission every two months, covering all missions undertaken, unless publication of this information would undermine the protection of the public interest as regards public security, defence and military matters, international relations or the financial, monetary or economic policy of the Union or a Member State.

Access to documents is governed by Regulation 1049/2001. Members of the Commission and services should respect the deadlines set by this regulation at all times. 

Each Member of the College must ensure compliance with the Code of Conduct for the Members of the Commission and with the rules governing meetings, publication of these meetings and access to documents. To this effect, each Member designates in his/her Cabinet an ‘ethics & transparency contact point’. 

(17) Commission Decision of 25.11.2014 (C(2014)9051).

(18) Commission Decision of 31 January