PA veteran calls for professional body to scrutinise Brussels lobbyists 

Brussels lobby veteran Daniel Guéguen says he supports plans set out by Anti-fraud Commissioner Siim Kallas in March to address transparency in Brussels lobbying (EurActiv, 7 March 2005). But Guéguen - the CEO of CLAN Public Affairs and Chairman of the European Training Institute - thinks reforms should go much further.

• Transparency and professional body

"Commissioner Kallas…should also think about transparency at the Commission level," Guéguen says, adding that "nothing is less transparent than comitology and other committees and expert groups". 

To Guéguen, the next fundamental step in advancing lobbying ethics in Brussels should centre on the creation of a high-level professional body that would establish mandatory rules and criteria to certify entry into the profession.

"The aim is to create a professional public affairs body in the same way as there is a professional body for lawyers or architects," says Guéguen. "This appears fundamental to me because, [in Brussels], anybody can become a public affairs professional without any guarantee of competence or integrity."

But he is against establishing a US-style Lobbying Disclosure Act in Europe whereby every sum and every client has to be disclosed on a public register available online. Guéguen says the American system - although very transparent - is "a system of financing for political parties via private sponsoring", which for him is "unacceptable".

• Lobbying ethics, economic intelligence and industrial warfare 

Guéguen says a professional body for lobbyists will become all the more essential as public affairs professionals in Brussels are expected to adopt much tougher and, sometimes, borderline strategies. But why would such a thing happen? "Because the stakes are higher, because Brussels is the number one centre of power in Europe, because Brussels will become the permanent theatre of heavy industrial warfare." 

Guéguen goes on: "In the future […] we will tend to adopt ever tougher lobbying strategies and ever more sophisticated approaches to economic intelligence that will probably involve practices such as manipulation, destabilisation or disinformation."

As a consequence, he argues a professional body would be instrumental in defining ethical limits while at the same time defending lobbyists' interests in cases where they are in difficulty - for example in protecting their sources when involved in a competition probe. "Journalists and lawyers have protection for the confidentiality of their sources. We don't have that," he points out. 

• Skills for sound future public affairs practice

With some of these developments already underway, Guéguen believes the practice of public affairs will become more and more sophisticated. "It is clear that economic intelligence is going to make a big breakthrough in Brussels. In the 70s-80s, we were in a phase of diplomatic lobbying. In the 90s, we were in a strategic lobbying phase. Now, we are entering another, more complex phase of lobbying. Developing and implementing a lobbying strategy for a major European dossier will become as complex as a merger-acquisition".

With more countries and an increasing number of stakeholders involved in EU affairs, the dossiers are becoming more complex, calling for increasingly cross-cutting skills from lobbyists and consultants. "My first conviction is that we will tend towards multi-skilled jobs […] involving the different elements of a problem: banks, law firms, consultancies, information, education, communication. My second conviction is that we will tend towards more complexity, with more countries, more technical and complex dossiers and stakeholders. Hence the need to train EU actors."

• Responsibilities of the Belgian administration in promoting transparency in lobbying

The other elements Guéguen believes are essential to regulate lobbying better fall under the responsibility of the Belgian administration:

• Banning so-called 'de facto' associations (created under Belgian law) from interacting with European institutions
• Setting up a legal framework under Belgian law for EU interest representation in Brussels (AISBL status which concerns educational, sporting or scientific international activities  is unsuitable as it does not cover economic activities, according to Guéguen)
• Adapting Belgian VAT and social rules to international interest groups which are not familiar with the subtleties of the local tax system

Click here to read the full interview with Daniel Guéguen [in French]