The European Commission has published a Green Paper on a European Transparency Initiative. This paper argues for a voluntary registration system of lobbyists. It fails to address issues of disclosure so professional lobbyists make known for whom they work. The Green paper has been criticised by Alter-EU, a coalition of different organisations of which EPSU is also a member.
Read the press release below
Or on the website of Alter-EU http://www.alter-eu.org/
Press release ALTER EU
EU fails to develop credible transparency rules
BRUSSELS, 3 May 2006 - The Commission's proposals for the new European
Transparency Initiative (ETI) fail to deliver transparency around the role
of lobbying in EU decision-making and will not improve public trust in the
EU institutions, the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics
Regulation (ALTER-EU) charged today. ALTER-EU will continue to push for a
meaningful transparency system during the consultation period which begins
with this Green Paper, and urges the Commission to make more effective
proposals soon.
The critique came in response to the publication by the EU Commission of
the Green Paper on ETI, proposing a voluntary registration system for
lobbyists. Entirely missing from the Green Paper are proposals for ending
privileged access by commercial lobbyists and on employment of Commission
public officials in the private sector (‘revolving doors').
ALTER-EU believes that the Commission approach to transparency is totally
insufficient and urges the Commission to introduce incentives to ensure
registration of all lobbyists. In particular, the alliance makes the
following criticisms:
- the Commission fails to propose an effective system of disclosure.
Vested interest lobbyists are likely to continue to operate without having
to provide information on the financing of their activities;
- it does not address the issue of “revolving doors”, where former EU
Commission staff take up lobbying posts, nor does it provide for
transparency regarding staff working for the Commission under temporary
contracts;
- the Commission appears satisfied with current consultation procedures,
despite recent cases where the Commission has granted privileged access to
lobbyists from the corporate sector, for example the European Services
Forum, High Level Working Groups and the Communication on CSR;
- the Commission failed to develop proposals for a code of conduct for
ethical behavior for all lobbyists: the Commission cannot leave this to
the lobbyists themselves but must show leadership and secure a credible
“implementation and sanction mechanism”.
Erik Wesselius of Corporate Europe Observatory said: “The ETI Green Paper
lays out an inadequate voluntary approach. An e-mail list announcing
upcoming Commission consultations is no credible incentive to ensure
comprehensive registration and reporting by EU lobbyists. Those lobbyists
who want to stay in the shadow and not reveal their lobbying to the
general public will continue to do so under this proposal.”
Paul de Clerck of Friends of the Earth Europe said: “The current codes of
conduct of public affairs companies are not good because they lack
independent monitoring and effective sanctions and leave no role for
public scrutiny of lobbying The Commission must apply clear rules with
sanctions in case of non-compliance and false registration or else the
whole exercise is not credible”.
Jorgo Riss, director of Greenpeace European Unit, noted: “Lobbyism is a
thriving and unregulated business. Without rules, big money lobbying
undermines democracy. Large corporations invest a lot of money to get
access to EU decision-makers, and the public interest loses out.”
Ulrich Mueller of LobbyControl said: “A credible system of lobbying
transparency is feasible and possible, especially if you look at positive
examples in Lithuania, Hungary, Poland the US and Canada. For ALTER-EU,
the publication of the ETI Green Paper means the start of a pan-European
campaign to prevent the EU Commission from side-stepping the issues and to
ensure credible and effective EU lobbying transparency and ethics rules.“
For more information, please contact:
Paul de Clerck, Friends of the Earth Europe, +32 473510147,
[email protected]
Erik Wesselius, Corporate Europe Observatory, +31 30 2364422, [email protected]
Jorgo Riss, Greenpeace European Unit, + 32 2 2741907,
[email protected]
Ulrich Mueller, LobbyControl, [email protected]
Notes:
1) ALTER-EU is a coalition of over 140 civil society groups, trade unions,
academics and public affairs firms calling for: A EU lobbying disclosure
legislation; improved code of conduct for European Commission Officials;
the European EU Commission to terminate cases of privileged access and
undue influence granted to corporate lobbyists.
The call for “Ending corporate privileges and secrecy around lobbying in
the European Union”, the founding statement of the Alliance for
Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU) and a list of signatories
are available in www.alter-eu.org.
2) Paul de Clerck, Erik Wesselius, Jorgo Riss and Ulrich Mueller are
members of the ALTER-EU steering committee.
3) EU Commissioner Kallas first announced the European Transparency
Initiative (ETI) in a flagship speech on 5 March 2005. ETI is among other
things intended to correct the current lack of transparency around the
over 15,000 lobbyists working to influence the EU institutions.
See: http://europa.eu.int/comm/commission_barroso/kallas/transparency_en.htm
ENDS
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