Economy & Trade, Europe, Headlines

EUROPE: And the Lobbying Award Goes To…The Worst

David Cronin

BRUSSELS, Dec 10 2008 (IPS) - An unconventional awards ceremony was held in Brussels Dec. 9. The ‘Worst EU Lobbying Awards’ gave recognition to those corporate interest groups that have resorted to deceptive tactics while seeking to shape legislation in their favour.

Following an online poll which generated over 8,500 votes, the top prize went jointly to three firms that have been striving to convince policy makers that biofuels are ecologically benign.

Abengoa Bioenergy (the U.S. subsidiary of a Spanish firm), the Brazilian sugar industry association Unica and the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) were lambasted for the content of their advertisements.

One ad by Abengoa attributed a quote to the European Federation for Transport and Environment (T&E), a green campaign group, which suggested that ethanol made from crops such as sugar was the only solution to addressing society’s “addiction to oil”. Not only did T&E never make that claim, it has been critical of the EU’s efforts to use the increased consumption of biofuels as a pretext for avoiding measures to boost the energy efficiency of cars.

A separate ad by the MPOC was found to be misleading by the British Advertising Standards Authority. Whereas the ad maintained that palm oil plantations benefit the environment, a conservation scientist who complained to the British industry watchdog said it was wrong to insinuate that the plantations supported the same cornucopia of wildlife as the native rainforests they replaced.

Meanwhile, Piia-Noora Kauppi, a Finnish member of the European Parliament (MEP), won the “worst conflict of interest” award. Although outspoken on financial regulation issues, Kauppi has kept quiet about the fact that she has been hired to work for the Federation of Finnish Financial Services, a grouping of banks and insurance firms. This deal was confirmed in June 2008, one year before her term as an MEP ends. Kauppi, who is still on the Parliament’s payroll, has previously admitted that she proposed amendments written by representatives of European banks to a law on money laundering, in a bid to have its provisions weakened.

Having recently given birth to a baby, she did not attend the awards ceremony. When telephoned about the ‘honour’, she said: “I am on maternity leave and don’t want to discuss items relating to my work. I heard about this award and I’m not very happy about it.”

Olivier Hoedeman from Corporate Europe Observatory, the campaign group which organised the ceremony, said: “The voters’ choice of Piaa-Noora Kauppi reflects real concern about MEPs being too closely aligned with corporate interests. Stronger rules are needed to prevent conflicts of interests, including a cooling-off period for MEPs going through the revolving doors to become industry lobbyists.”

Doubts about whether the awards ceremony could take place had been cast in recent weeks because of legal proceedings initiated by one of the nominees.

Fritz-Harald Wenig, a senior trade official in the European Commission, was named in an article published by The Sunday Times newspaper earlier this year as being willing to offer commercially sensitive information in return for a payment worth 100,000 euros (129,000 dollars). He reportedly made the offer to journalists posing as representatives of a fictitious Chinese company.

Claiming that his professional reputation had been harmed, Wenig sued the ceremony’s organisers in a bid to have his nomination deleted. But last week a Brussels court ruled that freedom of expression was more important than any damage that may have been caused to him. Wenig is under investigation by the Commission’s in-house anti-fraud office.

Unlike their counterparts in Washington, the estimated 15,000 lobbyists in Brussels are not subject to mandatory transparency laws. A register of lobbyists opened by the Commission in June leaves it to the discretion of individual firms active in EU affairs about whether or not they wish to enter their details.

“There is no compulsion for anybody to sign up,” said William Dinan from Spinwatch, an organisation that monitors the public relations industry. “We think that anybody engaged in deceptive lobbying might avoid such a register.”

Only about 5 percent of lobbyists have so far registered, he added, with some taking advantage of the considerable leeway offered on disclosing how much they receive from their clients.

Burson-Marsteller, one of the few top PR firms to have registered so far, simply stated that its lobbying activities gave it a turnover of almost seven million euros during 2007. No details have been given for how much was received from each of its clients – who include the pharmaceutical firms Pfizer, Novartis and Roche, Kraft Foods, the diamonds dealer De Beers, and Continental Airlines.