7. Calls upon the Commission to report on all officials having left the services of this Commission, definitively or for a time-limited sabbatical, to take up a new job that is related to his/her former field of work within two years of leaving the service, with particular reference to employment in lobby firms as an advisor, consultant or assistant, and any conditions or prohibitions it has adopted pursuant to Article 16 of the Staff Regulations;

C. whereas the activities of interest representatives are expanding rapidly in terms of both the number of players and the techniques used, and whereas those activities cover different types of structure as well as players with widely differing concerns,

Building a Europe of energy for all means recognising that energy is a public right of mankind, not a commodity. It means repealing all the directives on deregulation and liberalisation of competition in the energy sector, guaranteeing the public regulation and ownership of the entire nuclear sector, including on issues relating to decommissioning and subcontracting. It means creating a European energy agency that would coordinate and pool all the Member States’ research and security efforts in the energy sector and guarantee equal access to energy for all EU citizens, and setting up an economic interest ...[+++] group bringing together all European businesses, public and private alike, that operate in the energy sector.

We had many meetings and discussions with local, regional, national and international operating companies and interest groups, so of course highly detailed proposals were the result.

Better consultation and involvement, a more open use of expert advice and a fresh approach to medium-term planning will allow it to consider much more critically the demands from the Institutions and from interest groups for new political initiatives.

This is reflected in the overwhelming response to the Cohesion Forum in Brussels in May 2001, attended by 1800 delegates, and in the numerous written submissions received from national and regional authorities and from other interest groups that are summarised in this report, not to mention numerous independently-organised conferences and seminars on this subject.