 Many of us are frustrated by the current political system. It can feel as if our vote does not have any influence at all, and that today's EU is more a Europe of lobbyists than a Europe of citizens. And this feeling is, unfortunately, not entirely wrong. Two in three of the lobbyists in Brussels work on behalf of business interests, so those lobbying on behalf of trade unions or non-governmental organisations are dramatically underrepresented. As a consequence, powerful business interests have more access to and influence over EU decision-makers than those working, for instance, on environmental issues or human rights issues. And this can be really dangerous for our democracy. Without transparency, there is no democracy. And without the rule of law, we cannot guarantee that democracy will be here to stay. So when it comes to power and money, transparency should be the rule, not the exception. Here are the main steps we can take as voters to rebalance the system on the EU level and create a transparent union that serves the interest of the people. We have to hold our politicians accountable. Too often, it seems that our elected EU representatives do whatever they want once elected, quickly forgetting us, their own programmes and pre-election promises. But a political mandate is, of course, not a blank check for the entire five-year term. In a real democracy, we as citizens have the right to know what is going on. Many of the biggest scandals of corruption and conflicts of interests were uncovered by whistleblowers or journalists who play a crucial role in speaking truth to power and thereby holding public officials accountable. But those people are often under enormous threat or even killed. Wouldn't it be good if instead we had a minimum standard of protection for whistleblowers across the EU? On top of that, we have to all stand up for the freedom of the media and support high-quality investigative journalism. We have to demand full transparency. We should be able to monitor what elected representatives on the EU level do in-between elections. Who is lobbying who? For which purpose and with what resources? For example, it should be obligatory for all members of the European Parliament to publish who they meet and who influence them when working on legislation. With access to power comes great temptation and not everyone can resist it. But shouldn't it be normal to punish those who abuse public office for their own private gain? That's why we want a special independent ethics authority to control abuses of power. We also need access to information on how public money is spent and how much money is earned by politicians through other jobs or engagements that might cause a conflict of interest with their work as policymakers. We must hold our governments accountable, also in Brussels. Many national governments want to escape negative public opinion and use the EU, namely Brussels, as a scapegoat for their own political choices. It is therefore about time that we as citizens also get full insight on what the council, where the member states representatives decide on legislation, is doing. The positions defended by our government representatives should be made public so that all of us, as well as the media, can know what position our politicians are taking in our name at the EU level. Some companies nowadays are even bigger than the GDP of some EU countries which is why we need to transform our system into a transparent union with honest politicians who can defend the wider public interest instead of the narrow private interests of a handful of corporate elites. We can achieve this if all of us, transparency NGOs, the media and policymakers, work together at the EU level.