"Bring lobbying out of the shadows" say transparency campaigners"

  • Media Advisory BRUSSELS, 11 July 2006 - Coinciding with a hearing on the European Transparency Initiative (ETI) at the Economic and Social Committee today [1], the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU) has submitted its recommendations to the European Commission’s consultation on the Green Paper on the ETI.[2]


  • 11 July 2006

    In its submission, ALTER-EU stresses that comprehensive and detailed information on lobbying is a precondition for effective democratic scrutiny and improving the quality and legitimacy of EU decision making. All European citizens, particularly those who are not based in Brussels, should be able to see who is influencing or attempting to influence EU decision making, how they try to do this, and on whose behalf they are acting.

    Commenting on the Commission’s proposals outlined in the Green Paper, Erik Wesselius, a member of ALTER-EU’s steering committee said "Today, Brussels lobbyists are free to stay in the shadows; to provide real visibility of lobbying in Brussels, the Commission should move beyond voluntary approaches and set up an effective and reliable lobby registration system."

    Ulrich Müller of LobbyControl, said: "Lobbying firms should be obliged to provide information on their clients and lobbying budgets per client. Only such information will allow for comparisons over time and may help to highlight important trends in lobbying activity. The ’Abramoff’ lobbying scandal in the US came to light in part through publicly available information on Mr. Abramoff’s rapidly growing lobbying budgets."

    On 31 May 2006, the Danish Parliament unanimously adopted a resolution calling for mandatory EU lobbying registration instead of the voluntary system proposed in the Green Paper on the European Transparency Initiative.

    ALTER-EU is a coalition of over 140 organisations campaigning for meaningful lobbying transparency and ethics regulation at the EU. http://www.alter-eu.org

    NOTES
    1) http://eesc.europa.eu/sco/events/11_07_06_transparency/index_en.asp

    2) ALTER-EU’s submission to the consultation on the European Transparency Initiative is available for download (see above right)

    ENDS



    * Paul de Clerck, Friends of the Earth Europe, +32-2-5426107, paul@milieudefensie.nl

    * Ulrich Mueller, LobbyControl, +49 170 3110089, u.mueller@lobbycontrol.de

    * Erik Wesselius, Corporate Europe Observatory, +31-30-2364422, erik@corporateeurope.org