Brussels, 28/10/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 28 October 2009, the European Commission adopted a report drawing on the lessons of the first year of operation of the European Commission's voluntary register of interests (lobby groups). Siim Kallas, a vice-president of the European Commission, said it did not want the register to be made compulsory but said that the new European Commission would have to re-assess how things were evolving and therefore it could not be ruled out that lobbyists may be forced to register in the future.
There were 2,014 interest representatives (lobbyists) on the register on 5 October 2009, explained the Commissioner, describing this as a 'good thing,' making the register a 'political success.' The Commission suggests that the underlying principles should remain in place (an optional register connected with a code of conduct, a reasonable degree of financial information and statements by bodies rather than individuals), but suggests the following improvements: 1) Lawyers and thinktanks. These two specific categories are not fully contributing their fair share, one year on from the launch of the register. While law firms were included among the target groups from the very beginning, they are still largely hiding, claiming registration is against the bar rules. The Commission is certain there is a way to register while respecting the bar rules. To facilitate this registration, further clarification is provided on the distinction between legal advice and lobbying. The Commission intends to actively pursue its contacts with the bar associations to resolve this issue. The review confirms the expectation that think tanks should join the register, and the revised definition further underlines that the indirect influence often pursued via events and publications organised by think tanks is to be considered a lobbying activity. To facilitate registration, a separate category for think tanks is created within the Register in order to underline their distinct character from other registrants; 2) Financial information. The provision of financial information by public affairs consultancies has been changed. Experience gained over the past year has demonstrated that the choice offered of expressing the relative weight of clients in brackets of either €50,000 or 10% of turnover failed to meet the original objective. In practice, registrants choosing the percentage option disclosed their client list, but not - as originally intended - giving adding transparency to the relative weight of those clients. This is particularly the case of large companies, with the unintended consequence that smaller companies were required to be more transparent than larger ones. The Commission is therefore replacing the current choice between brackets and percentage of turnover by client by a unique grid of brackets in euros. In addition to the information already provided by the register about the financial resources used for lobbying, information is also requested about human resource use.
The Commission disagrees with people who argue that 15,000 lobby groups exist but only 2,000 of them are on the register. The Commission says that 15,000 is more like the number of individuals rather than groups.
The Commission will now get back to work on a common register with the European Parliament. The next meeting of the inter-institutional high level group - composed of MEPs Diana Wallis, Isabelle Durant, Jo Leinen, and Carlo Casini for the Parliament and of Commissioner Siim Kallas for the European Commission - will take place on 12 November 2009.
The 'Alliance pour une Réglementation de Transparence et d'Ethique en Matière de Lobbying' (ALTER-EU) believes that the suggested improvements 'won't address the fundamental problems' with the system. The register is voluntary, the names of individual lobbyists are not included and the financial information provided is inadequate, explained Paul de Clerck of ALTER-EU in an interview with EUROPE. The suggested improvements to the financial information would mean even less transparency for many lobby groups than at present, he explained, due to the three levels of funding decided upon (€50,000, €100,000 and €250,000). (L.C. trans fl)