Civil society demands more lobbying transparency

European civil society, transparency and consumer groups yesterday (30 October) unveiled guidelines for a new EU lobbyists’ register to replace the “weak and unclear” model introduced by the European Commission in June. But a spokesperson for the EU executive said there were no plans to revise the scheme at present.

The model, based on existing legislation on lobbying disclosure in the US, was unveiled by representatives of EU consumers’ organisation BEUC, the EU Civil Society Contact Group and the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU), a transparency body. 

Describing the Commission’s model as “flawed”, the civil society groups claim that the new guidelines, which they hope will eventually be used for a mandatory register, ensure greater transparency of EU decision-making. 

Disclosing the names of individual lobbyists 

The guidelines suggest that the register should include the names of all individuals within an organisation who seek to influence EU policymaking and decision-making, as well as those from associated bodies lobbying on its behalf. 

The civil society groups are complaining that failure to disclose the names of individual lobbyists and the issues they deal with limits the capacity of the register to uncover conflicts of interest, without shedding any light on how many lobbyists are actually operating in Brussels. 

Providing details of the issues on which lobbying is taking place 

The proposals encourage participating organisations to list the EU laws and policies that they have tried to influence during a twelve-month reporting period.

Providing a clear and wide definition of lobbying activities to enable accurate calculation of lobbying expenditure 

Lobbying activities should include meeting with EU officials with the objective of influencing policy, the NGOs recommend. Likewise, they want participation in consultative committees or expert groups at the invitation of the Commission to be defined as lobbying, and costs related to participating in conferences at the EU institutions or hosting EU officials to be disclosed. 

Furthermore, the civil society groups claim that “unclear” rules on financial disclosure, with different categories for different types of organisation (see background), “make it impossible to compile and compare information”. Instead, they suggest that lobbying expenses be declared in brackets of €10,000.

Commission defiant

Asked whether there were any plans to revise the register to include names of individuals or more detailed financial data, Administration and Anti-Fraud Commissioner Kallas’s spokesperson Valérie Rampi said: “Such criticisms are not new to the Commission and I thus see no reason to comment on those old criticisms.”  “The register has been up and running since June, and we said that we would give it a full year to allow interest representatives to register and allow them to live up to the commitments they made to do so,” she continued. “We will review the situation then.” 

Confusion over number of lobbyists 

Opinions vary widely as to the actual number of lobbyists active in Brussels (EURACTIV 10/06/08). Commissioner Kallas has cited a figure of 15,000 in the past, but as of yesterday, just 484 organisations had signed up for the Commission’s register. 

“Nobody has a figure on how many lobbyists there are in Brussels,” said Greenpeace’s Jorgo Riss, speaking for ALTER-EU. He called on the Commission to record details of its interlocutors on a procedural basis, which would provide a figure against which it could evaluate the success of the register. “A lobby register without the names of lobbyists is as useful as a phone book without numbers,” he complained. 

Rather than boycotting the register, the groups are recommending that those registering should do so following their guidelines instead to put pressure on the Commission to reform the system. 

“Our organisations discussed boycotting the register in case the Commission sees lots of registrations and considers it a success, but we decided that getting involved and providing constructive criticism was better,” said Fintan Farrell of the EU Civil Society Contact Group. 

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