On Thursday 12 December, the inter-institutional Parliament-Commission working group which is reviewing the EU lobby register (the so-called “Transparency Register”) will finalise its work and produce a series of recommendations for reform. [1]
The Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU) [2] considers that several essential elements must be included if the final package of recommendations is to be in line with earlier resolutions from the Parliament [3], boost lobbying transparency and have real credibility.
These essential elements are:
- The presentation of a roadmap for the transition from the current voluntary transparency register to a mandatory register by 31 December 2014. It is vital that the hundreds of major corporations, lobby consultancies and law firms which are currently absent from the register are required to sign up. [4]
- The inclusion of incentives to encourage registration now while the mandatory register is developed. [5] These incentives would help to make the register de facto mandatory for all EU lobbyists in the interim and should include:
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Commission staff and Commissioners refuse to meet with any organisation or individual that fall under the scope of the Transparency Register but who are unregistered;
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Organisations and individuals that fall under the scope of the Transparency Register but who are unregistered will not be invited to participate in Commission expert groups or other advisory groups to the Commission and Parliament;
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Commission staff, Commissioners and MEPs refuse to speak at events (co-)organised or (co-)hosted by all organisations and individuals that fall under the scope of the Transparency Register but who are unregistered;
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Organisations and individuals that fall under the scope of the Transparency Register but who are unregistered will no longer be given the opportunity to hold debates, conferences or other events on the premises of the Commission and the Parliament.
ALTER-EU considers that, unless these elements are included, the review of the register will have been a failure. In November 2013, over 10,000 people from across Europe signed a petition to support a mandatory lobby register. [6] A recent opinion poll of citizens across Europe showed that 80 per cent of those questioned favour of a mandatory EU lobby register. [7] In May 2011, MEPs voted to support the transition to a mandatory lobby register.
The full list of ALTER-EU proposals for reform of the lobby register also includes improved disclosure requirements and can be found here: http://www.alter-eu.org/documents/2013/11-0
Contact:
Olivier Hoedeman, Corporate Europe Observatory, email: olivier@corporateeurope.org tel: +32 (0)2 893 0930, mobile: +32 (0)474 486545
Nina Katzemich, LobbyControl, email: nina.katzemich@lobbycontrol.de tel: +49 221 1696507, mobile: +49 179 5093022
Paul de Clerck, Friends of the Earth Europe, email: paul@milieudefensie.nl mobile:+32 (0)494 380959
Notes for editors:
[1] The register is currently under review by a group of MEPs and Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, under the leadership of the Parliament's Vice-President for Transparency issues Rainer Wieland MEP.
[2] ALTER-EU is a coalition of about 200 civil society groups, trade unions, academics and public affairs firms campaigning against the increasing influence exerted by corporate lobbyists on the political agenda in Europe.
[3] http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P7-TA-2011-0222+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN
[4] Research by ALTER-EU and its member groups shows that virtually all law firms boycott the register. Approximately 150 major corporations and lobby consultancies are also absent. These include: ABN-Amro bank, Amazon, Delhaize, Goldman Sachs, Janssen Pharmaceutica and Time Warner. http://corporateeurope.org/lobbycracy/2013/12/voluntary-lobby-register-still-inadequate
[5] These incentives should be designed in such a way that they can be included in the mandatory register as well. They should also be adopted into the relevant rules of procedure of the Commission and the Parliament.
[6] More information about the petition can be found here: http://www.alter-eu.org/node/455
[7] EU Citizens Opinion Poll conducted by TNS Opinion in six EU Member States. The results can be found here: http://www.access-info.org/en/european-union/496-meps-sent-infografics