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News

Lobbyists reject financial disclosure as 'unviable'

Published: Tuesday 3 July 2007 | Updated: Friday 6 July 2007

The European Public Affairs Consultancies Association (EPACA) says Commission demands for the provision of commercially sensitive financial information are "not practicable within a voluntary framework" and would provide discriminatory treatment for consultancies who, unlike NGOs and specific interest representation groups, have a wide range of different clients and operate in a competitive market.

Background:

Since Anti-Fraud Commissioner Kallas's Communcation on a European Transparency Initiative was adopted on 21 March 2007, the Commission has decided:

To create and launch a new voluntary register for interest representatives with an 'alert' function;
to reinforce the Commission's consultation standards using a website linked to the register, and;
to draft a code of conduct for relations between interest representatives and the EU institutions. The code will be a requirement for inclusion in the register and will be monitored by the Commission.

According to Kallas, detailed discussions with stakeholders are already well under way.

Other related news:

According to EPACA, the Commission's proposal suggests discriminatory treatment for consultancies compared with other lobbyists, and has proposed a self-regulating council to draw up a code of conduct and simply the disclosure of lobbyists' clients and their mission.

The public affairs consultancies' association calls on the Commission to establish lobbying as a regulated profession, a process that it says should include:

Setting up a mandatory legislated registration system following full consultation and due legal process;
a non-discriminatory system, which applies a level playing field to all;
clear definitions and workable mechanisms for financial disclosure, and;
recognition that there is confidential commercial information which must be respected and mechanisms set up to deal with this sensitivity.

The weakness of the proposed system, EPACA argues, is compounded by the fact that the current definition of lobbying used by the Commission is "far too general".

Positions:

EPACA Chairman José Lalloum supports registration of all lobbyists but opposes mandatory publication of "commercially sensitive or confidential financial information".

"For example," Lalloum explains, "NGOs must only disclose their overall budget and their 'main source of funding', while consultancies are expected to provide a detailed breakdown of lobbying-related turnover. EPACA views this as unacceptable, as the same rules must apply to all. By requiring consultancies to divulge commercially sensitive financial information, the Commission is encouraging them to exchange competitive information, something which undermines competition law."

"Consultancies are essentially being asked to divulge information that no other profession is required to," Lalloum argues.

However, the Society of European Affairs Professionals (SEAP) has not advised its members to boycott the registry. President Lyn Trytsman-Gray has stated the disclosure rules may result in individual lobbyists accounting for their budgets differently, creating a register with "non-comparable" figures, and is asking for a system in which the total turnover is not given, but only a percentage breakdown by client or donor.

The move towards full financial disclosure is however supported by ALTER-EU, the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation. The group, which includes NGOs Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and SpinWatch, insists that precise rules on financial disclosure are necessary to increase transparency in EU lobbying, "especially for law firms, think tanks and corporate lobby units".

"For our part, as NGOs campaigning for lobbying transparency, we already publish information about our budgets and income sources, and we stand ready to sign on to the new register and disclose the required financial information," said William Dinan from SpinWatch.