(BRUSSELS) - The European Parliament voted on Thursday in favour of tightening rules regulating the 15,000 lobbyists that gravitate around the EU institutions.

By an overwhelming majority EU lawmakers adopted a report recommending a mandatory public register for lobbyists that seek to influence decisions at the European Union's institutions.

The report, drafted by Finnish conservative MEP Alexander Stubb before he became Finland's foreign minister, also calls for a code of conduct and sanctions for those who flaunt it.

Professional lobbyists would have to disclose in the register the importance of their major clients and the costs associated with lobbying, while NGOs and thinktanks would be required to state their overall budgets and main funding sources.

Unlike the European Commission and the European Council of member governments, only the European Parliament currently has a voluntary register of lobbyists and a code of lobbying conduct, which has been in place for the past 10 years.

However, the commission is setting one up to be in place in June.

The new measures are hoped to be in place in time for European Parliament elections in June 2009.

Once these new rules are implemented, we will have a real culture of transparency in Brussels," said German Socialist EU lawmaker Jo Leinen.

However, Green lawmakers and an anti-lobby lobby lamented that the measures were not even stronger, saying that they had been watered down with a loophole for lawyers.

"Lawyers are exempted from the scope of rules, which, given all available evidence is absurd," said Italian Green Monica Frassoni.

"Lawyers play an increasingly important role in influencing policy in Brussels and they promote themselves as such on their own websites," she added.

The Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation also said the loophole for lawyers was the work of conservative lawmaker Klaus-Heiner Lehne, who himself is a partner at law firm Taylor Wessing, specialised in EU law.

"This outcome shows the need for the parliament to clean up its own house

and introduce strong rules to prevent conflicts of interest," said Paul de Clerck with environmentalist campaigners Friends of the Earth Europe.

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