Did you know: since July 2024, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have disclosed over 55,000 meetings with lobbyists and collectively declared more than 1,800 side jobs, including roles linked to registered EU lobby organisations? Or that of the over 23,000 lobby meetings disclosed by the European Commission, only less than one in five was held with civil society organisations? This expanding body of public data enables systematic analysis of lobbying exposure, conflicts of interest, and undue influence risks in EU decision-making, and has become a key resource for investigative reporting to break stories across the EU.
During this session, we will examine the practical investigative applications of Integrity Watch EU (IW EU), a near real-time transparency and data aggregation platform on the interactions between the private sector and over 2000 EU officials. IW EU collates all available data on MEP and European Commission lobby meetings, MEP side activities, and lobbyists registered on the EU’s Transparency Register. It is part of the wider IW eco-system of platforms, deployed in 23 European countries, enabling cross-border linkages with national integrity data such as political donations, lobby registers, or public procurement procedures.
Participants will receive a technical introduction to the new real-time monitoring features of IW EU, including its underlying data sources, legal disclosure frameworks, and analytical functionalities. We will go hands-on to learn how data sets can be queried, cross-referenced, and contextualised for investigative purposes. This session is suitable for beginners, and no data journalism knowledge is required.
