Civil Society, Europe, Headlines

EUROPE: A Phone Book Without Numbers

David Cronin

BRUSSELS, Oct 30 2008 (IPS) - A new European Union initiative officially aimed at improving transparency is providing only scant details about the influence that corporate lobbyists wield over the decision-making process, according to environmental and consumer rights advocates.

In June, the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, launched an online register to store details of public relations firms, lawyers and non-profit organisations who liaise with EU officials.

Unlike a similar scheme in the U.S., the lobby is entirely voluntary and, in the view of many campaign groups, its operation is not providing a clear picture about the resources lobbyists employ in seeking to shape legislation.

Jorgo Riss, head of the Brussels office of Greenpeace, said the register does not even give basic details of who works for firms active in the Brussels lobbying scene. “A lobby register without the names of lobbyists is as useful as a phone book without numbers,” he said.

Riss argued that the U.S. system of mandatory disclosure of lobbyists – which includes financial penalties for those who flout the regulations – works better. Every three months, pressure groups in Washington have to fill out a four-page form, stating who they employ and how much money they have spent campaigning on each item of legislation they are following. This system, he said, has helped journalists and researchers uncover ‘revolving door’ cases – where public officials have ‘sold’ their expertise to the private sector – and other conflict of interests.

For example, the U.S. mandatory register has been deemed useful in drawing attention to the activities of Jack Abramoff, a Republican Party activist convicted of seeking to corrupt lawmakers with money, meals and free holidays.

According to estimates cited by the European Commission in 2005, Brussels has some 15,000 lobbyists, most of which represent corporate clients. Just 480 groups have so far registered their activities. These include 286 ‘in-house’ lobbying departments of companies, 39 public relations firms or professional consultancies, and 120 non-governmental organisations or ‘think-tanks’. Although many lawyers are known to be involved in drafting legislative proposals, just four law firms have registered so far.

Some of the world’s largest public relations firms such as Burson Marsteller and Hill and Knowlton – the company tasked with convincing the U.S. public of the ‘necessity’ of going to war against Iraq in the early 1990s – have not yet signed up to the register, even though they have offices in Brussels. Burson Marsteller has been especially active in tracking environmental laws on behalf of the chemicals industry in recent years.

The register is limited to organisations, and does not apply to individuals hired to work on ad hoc campaigns. Nor does it provide any real transparency about ‘expert groups’ formed by the Commission to provide advice when it is drafting new proposals. When the Commission set up such groups to deal with the EU’s policy on biofuels, those invited to participate came almost exclusively from an industry background, rather than one of campaigning on environmental or human rights issues.

A coalition of non-profit organisations known as the EU Civil Society Contact Group this week unveiled guidelines for improving the register. It is asking its affiliates to submit precise details of who works for them, and their budgets, as well as criticisms of the register’s flaws to the Commission.

Fintan Farrell from the European Anti-Poverty Network said that the register “does not provide a clear answer to questions which we think are very important to citizens.”

Many organisations, he added, had considered boycotting the scheme. But after a lengthy debate they decided it was “much more important to offer a constructive critique.”

Monique Goyens, spokeswoman for the European Consumers Organisation (known by its French acronym BEUC) noted that the defeat of the EU’s Lisbon treaty in a referendum in Ireland earlier this year had indicated that many ordinary people regard the Brussels institutions as aloof. “A strong register is in the interest of democracy and European citizens, who want to know who the real players in Brussels are, particularly at a time when the EU is struggling to gain the trust of Europeans.”

About 80 percent of consumer legislation applying in the EU has been drafted in Brussels, she added, contending that there should be transparency about companies seeking to dilute particular proposals. For example, she said that manufacturers of chocolate eggs have had some success in ensuring that new legislation on toy safety will not affect them, despite evidence that children can choke on such gifts.

Valérie Rampi, the Commission’s spokeswoman on transparency issues, declined to comment about the criticisms of the register, other than to say that its operation will be reviewed during 2009.