We Pirates call for the disclosure of the influence of interest groups and lobbyists on political decisions to protect the democratic process and to make the basics of decisions transparent.

We PIRATES recognize the consultation of stakeholders - for example, NGOs, trade unions, environmental protection, civil rights and business organizations - as an integral part of the policy development process of the society - as long as this exchange is sufficiently open and transparent. The disproportionate influence of individual groups by shifting the political process in informal networks of relationships outside the formal legislative process, we reject. We PIRATES call for a mandatory register of lobbyists for the institutions of the European Union (EU). Lobbyists and interest groups shall need to enlist in the register to get the opportunity to be consulted on proposed legislation by the European Parliament. This register must be regularly checked by authorized, independent bodies.

We PIRATES call for the publication of the casual earnings of parliamentarians, Commissioners and senior officials from the European Union and the identification of potential conflicts of interest and dependencies.

Since the fulfillment of the mandate is central to the work of the MEPs, the maximum number of functions in supervisory, administrative and advisory boards or other bodies shall be limited by amending the Code of Conduct for the Members of the European Parliament to fulfill their primary activity conscientiously.

Violations of the code of conduct and declaration duties must be , among others, punished by high administrative fines.

Perquisites, allowances and monetary benefits, as well as employers must be published immediately after receivingthem in a machine-readable form on the Internet, to make it possible to link the data to the register of lobbyists and voting behaviour in the plenary and committees.

We PIRATES refuse to retired leaders to shortly take over tasks of political advocacy for businesses and organizations in the area of ​​their former responsibilities.To give elected representatives and government officials less incentive to make their political action dependent on the interests of potential future employers, we PIRATES call for the introduction of waiting periods (so-called “cooling-off”) for members of the European institutions and senior EU officials, provided that no superior law is violated.Vestings shall apply for those policy fields, where decision makers were responsible in their previous political function and where there may be links between the decisions made ​​in office and the intended employment.

We PIRATES advocate for a general and comprehensive legislation, which shall be valid in all member states, to protect persons who report cases of corruption, insider trading, or disclose ethics violations (“whistle-blower”).

Transactions of the public sector must be transparent. The state, politics and the executive organs are stewards of the tax money of the citizens. We PIRATES believe that it is a fundamental right of the citizens to inspect all contracts in the public sector. The use of budget funds must be identifiable and verifiable for everyone. The tender criteria shall be published in a way that the citizens may accompany the decision process (e.g. on the internet). It would be desirable, if all submitted offers would be published drectly after the end of the offer period. Public procurement and projects and organizations subsidized by tax funds should be stored in a central database and published on an online portal.

The ESM agreement violates the basic constitutional legal principles as well as the legal principles of a democratic polity (especially the parliamentary prerogative and the rule-of-law principle) and also the transparency principle of the Pirate Party. Demands of the Pirate Party:

1) Decisions taken by the Board of Governors on the rescue shall be decided and controlled by the democratically elected Members of the European Parliament.

2) All lending procedures shall be transparent. The annual financial statements and the annual reports of the ESM should be presented in a machine-readable format for all.

3) The ESM monitoring reports should be accessable and published for all.

4) Every rise of an authorized capital shall be decided pronounced by the democratically elected representatives of the respective national parliament.

5) The European Parliament shall have the authority to elevate the immunity of the members of the Board Governors including the members of the Board Directors.

6) The income of the members of the Board Governors and of the Board Directors has to be published.

We PIRATES demand that all exceptionary stabilisation and consolidation measures for member states of the European Union require that the member state will offer complete transparency of its political and administrative system.

Measures like credits or debt cuts have to be linked to the adoption of freedom of information and transparency acts in those states.

Only this may ensure that financial means will be used in the interest and under the supervision of the people of the country concerned. We assume that due to the additional transparency the money will be invested into measures that will promote the economic stability of the country in the long run.

We PIRATES want the European Union to pass legislation modeled after the Calfornia Transparency in Supply Chains Act which would oblige large corporations with an annual revenue of at least 100 Million Euro to disclose their measures taken against human trafficking, slavery, forced and child labor and debt bondage in their chain of supply.

Transparent organization:

• publishes all the information about its activities on the Internet (that includes accounting, contracts, structure of property, authority decisions, agenda), except information that is excluded by the law.

• all the finance management should be done exclusively via a transparent bank account which is publicly provided by a relevant bank on the Internet

• carries out competitive tendering using two-stage model

• exercises effective internal mechanism for control and enforcement of transparency rules

E) Cooling-off period for top politicians - We think it's important to state a number of years because indeed many countries have laws regarding this point but the periods are so brief that they are useless:

”… “cooling-off”) of a mínimum duration of five (5) years”

F) Transparency of Public Procurement (additional points proposed for the PPDE draft)

* Transparency should be active and on demand.

* No justification should be provided for requesting a certain information.

* It should apply to government, public administration, political parties, and private organisations which are owned (>30% share) by the public sector or receive more tan 30% of their income from public budgets.

* Financial and banking institutions should also be subject to transparency requirements, as the experience has shown that they ultimately rely on public (taxpayers’s) money, as they “cannot be allowed to fail”.

* Transparency requirements should also include private entities that carry out by delegation a public role.

* Transparency laws should have the highest legal rank.

* Administrative silence should not be legally accepted as a normal answer to an information request.

* The exceptions to transparency should be clearly and operationally listed in the transparency law.

1.5.2 Setting Up of a Mandatory Lobby Register at All European Levels remove entire paragraph

1.5.3 Tightening of the Rules on Transparency and Casual Earnings of MEPs remove entire paragraph

1.5.4 Introduction of Cooling-Off Periods for Top Politicians remove entire paragraph

1.5.5 Whistleblower Protection Law in Public Administration and in the Private Sector This is currently in line with a proposal at our GA that we believe will pass. So hopefully we will be able to support this. We will know in less than two weeks, so we can keep it for now while we wait for the outcome of the votes of our GA.

1.5.6 Transparency of Public Procurement Firs sentence is great, rest needs to be rephrased and less detailed.

1.11, 1.12 & 1.13 agricultural policy, social policy and economic and financial policy Remove everything on agricultural policy, social policy and economic and financial policy.