Law firms that lobby EU institutions will face pressure to sign a register of interests after senior EU officials vowed to forge ahead with plans to boost transparency, the Gazette has learned.

At a meeting in Brussels last Thursday, a working group of European commissioners and parliamentarians agreed to pressure national bar associations to get law firms to sign the register, after noting that firms had been reluctant to sign.

Lobbying organisations that sign the register must disclose the names of their clients, and how much they earn from lobbying on behalf of clients. However, law firms maintain that statutory client confidentiality rules prevent them from disclosing the names of their lobbying clients without client ­consent.

One member of the working group, German MEP Jo Leinen, warned that firms which refuse to register ‘will suffer in their contacts with EU institutions’.

Under the plans, a joint register of interests and code of conduct will be introduced for all entities that lobby the commission and parliament. Some 2,700 entities have already signed the commission’s register, launched in June 2008.

A spokesman for European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic said that there was a ‘determination on both sides to work on persuading the various national bar associations to encourage their members to sign up’.

European Parliament vice president Diana Wallis said: ‘It is plainly in the interest of our European citizens that we work together to make this system as transparent as possible, and that we chart lobbyists that try to influence EU policy decisions at every stage in the process.’

The European Commission’s register lists the names of organisations that directly and indirectly lobby European institutions. Each organisation is tagged with an identification number, under which its lobbying activities, goals, and an estimate of the annual amount it spends on EU lobbying are disclosed.

In its response to the Public Administration Select Committee’s report on lobbying of January last year, which recommended a statutory register of lobbyists, the government opted for a voluntary register in October.

However, the PASC renewed its call for a statutory register in December and criticised the government for its slow progress in bringing about effective self-regulation of the lobbying industry.

In a statement, the commission said that work on the register and code will now focus on administrative and technical issues, including the complaint and sanction mechanism.