Commission’s lobbyists register to ‘serve as testing ground’

The format of the EU executive’s voluntary lobbyists register to be published on 23 June is ‘not set in stone’ and can be adapted in future, said Siim Kallas, the Commission vice president in charge of administration and anti-fraud, on 28 May.

The European Commission “will work hard” towards developing a mandatory lobbyists register in conjunction with the European Parliament, Vice President Kallas told a conference organised by Commission trainees. 

Towards a common register? 

The June register “will serve as a testing ground for the feasibility of a common register” with the Parliament and Council, Kallas said. However, he warned that “there are 1,000 devils in the detail” regarding how this can be achieved in practice. 

At present, the three institutions have very different rules governing the behaviour of lobbyists and bringing these together into a ‘one-stop’ shop to cover the Commission, the Parliament and the Council will not be an easy task. 

In the Commission, national experts are often seconded from the member states to assist in the preparation of legislation, an area where Kallas himself admits “there is a lot of room for improvement”. 

In the Parliament, frequent visitors require an access badge, of which 5,000 have been granted, according to German Socialist MEP and chair of Parliament’s Constitutional Affairs Committee Jo Leinen, while a ‘legislative footprint’ requires MEPs to provide information regarding any outside assistance used in the preparation of legislation. 

As for the Council, which enjoys considerable power under the co-decision procedure, legislation is often prepared by experts or diplomats seconded from national administrations in the member states, clouding the issue still further. 

Should the register include the names of individuals? 

“We don’t need the names of individuals” in the lobbyists register, said Kallas. “It doesn’t matter whether it is John or Harry,” he explained, as it is more important to know which outside interests are being represented than people’s names. What’s more, the requirement that law firms participating in the register must list their clients is “a big step forward,” he added. 

But Leinen told the conference that the register should include names because issues such as whether former Commission officials were involved in the preparation of legislation are “important and interesting questions for the public”. 

Likewise, Brussels lobbying veteran and CEO of CLAN Public Affairs Daniel Guéguen said “giving the name of your client is not enough” as this makes it possible to “hide behind a smokescreen”. He said he is not against revealing the names of his own clients and indeed “would be proud to do so”. 

Should lawyers have to register? 

Parliament’s report suggests lawyers should register “when their purpose is to influence policy rather than case law”. But Guéguen said “there is no difference between a top lawyer and a top lobbyist”. 

For his part, Commissioner Kallas stressed that the EU executive “wants to limit lawyers’ exceptions”. Although “Parliament does not seem to expect lawyers to register,” they should only be excluded “in cases where it is crucial to protect a client’s rights”. 

But Leinen warned that when giving legal advice, lawyers are simply carrying out their profession. Instead, “the client approaching the institution should be [classed as] the lobbyist, not the lawyer” in such cases, and lawyers should only be treated as lobbyists “when they approach the institutions outright”. 

Financial disclosure 

Interest representatives intending to take part in Kallas’s register will have to declare how much funding they receive from each client to the nearest €50,000 euros – in bands of €0-49,000, €50,000-99,000, €100,000-149,000 and so on. Consultancies will be asked to declare the percentage of annual lobbying income received from a particular client in bands of 10% (EURACTIV 26/05/08). 

But Leinen urged for brackets of €10,000 to be used instead as “financial disclosure should be more precise,” while Guéguen warned that for consultancies and professional lobbying firms alike, more clarification is needed on the kind of activities to be included in the financial disclosure requirement. 

“I spend less that 5% of my time on active lobbying” while the rest is non-active such as giving lectures and writing books, Guéguen said, wondering whether these activities would also need to be declared. 

The debate now shifts to the work of the inter-institutional working group to be established by the Parliament report, which is set to present a proposal for a common register by the end of the year. 

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