11/06/2025
At the end of last year, we celebrated a real win for open decision-making in Brussels: on 6 December 2024, the European Commission adopted two landmark decisions to publish not only the lobbying meetings but also their minutes—that is the arguments raised and the conclusions drawn—by around 1,500 officials across management levels. A month ago, we reported on the next step: extending proactive minutes-publication to European Parliament staff.
Yet this week’s Story of the Week from Follow the Money reveals a troubling twist: the published “minutes” often tell us almost nothing. Meetings with high-profile lobbyists – like ex-Commissioner Günther Oettinger’s consulting firm or a tête-à-tête between Vice-President Teresa Ribera and Apple CEO Tim Cook – are reduced to bland summaries about “current affairs” or a 25-word paragraph fit for a text message. Meanwhile, more detailed “confidential minutes” remain locked away, heavily redacted and only released upon specific information-access requests.
“Ultimately, the true rationale behind the proactive publication of note-keeping isn’t to guarantee transparency and institutional accountability, but to further entrench the secrecy of EU decision-making,” Professor Alberto Alemanno said to FTM. This charade undermines the very purpose of transparency: to allow citizens, civil society, and journalists to hold decision-makers to account. As Professor Alberto Alemanno pointed out, stripping minutes of substance is “antithetical to the declared objective pursued by the new transparency policy.”
It’s fundamental to be able to monitor the quality, not just the quantity, of meeting records.
At The Good Lobby, we will continue to advocate for truly meaningful transparency. “Open by default” must mean open for real.