Brussels, 23/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 22 March, the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (Alter-EU) published a study according to which corporate lobbyists have widespread access to the member state permanent representations to the European Union, enabling them to exert pressure by exploiting the loopholes in EU transparency rules.
In this study - National Representations in Brussels: Open for Corporate Lobbyists - Alter-EU reveals that these permanent representations are the ideal target for corporate lobbyists responsible for promoting their own interests. For Romania, for example, corporate lobbyists are present at up to 67% of permanent representation (PR) meetings whilst only 22% of meetings take place with civil society groups, religious groups, or universities etc. In the case of the Polish, the figures are 54% and 14% respectively.
Beyond the influence - made possible by the fact that the permanent representations are the direct link between the member states and the European institutions - the Alter-EU study shows that at least one meeting in five between the PR and corporate lobbies takes place with businesses not listed on the EU transparency register. Being listed on this register is not an obligatory step but voluntary (see EUROPE 11383). For Germany, 21% of meetings take place with lobbies not on the transparency register (20% of cases for Romania, 7% for Poland).
A second anomaly is also highlighted: meetings between PR and lobbies are not reported on or recorded. This lack of monitoring complicates the task of European citizens who, likely to want to know the identity of the lobbyists that the representatives of their country meet, too often find themselves faced with an empty agenda and blank page. In the Alter-EU study, 17 PR were approached and only four of them (Ireland, Romania, the Netherlands and Poland) agreed or were able to provide relevant information on these meetings.
Andreas Pavlou, a member of Alter-EU's executive committee, criticises the attitude of the PR which, sometimes, refuse to divulge any information about these meetings, as is the case for the UK or Malta. Pavlou speaks of “the urgent need for a legally-binding EU lobby register which includes all EU institutions and permanent representations”. “The review of the lobby register must ensure full transparency around the development of rules and regulations that ultimately affect the lives of 500 million European citizens”, he adds.
Alter-EU also asked the PR to prevent the meetings they hold from being dominated by the presence of corporate lobbyists. His wishes are clear: - to record and monitor all meetings with lobbyists; - to publish relevant quality information on meetings held by the PR with lobbyists (subject, lobbies present, date); - to organise meetings with lobbyists if, and only if, the lobbyists are listed on the EU transparency register. In addition, Pavlou is convinced that in order to strengthen the transparency rules with regard to lobbying, a “cultural change” is needed inside the PR. In his view, rather than submitting to pressure from lobbyists in the process of making decisions, the PR should strive to defend the public interest. (Original version in French by Maëlle Didion)