Lobbying: EU parliament must live up to citizens' expectations on transparency
Commenting on tomorrow's plenary vote on the EP report on lobbying transparency, Monica Frassoni, Co-President of the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament said:
"The vote on the new lobbying rules tomorrow, gives the European Parliament a unique chance to live up to the expectations of citizens regarding transparency in the EU institutions and the chance to adopt a strong and clear set of rules for lobbyists. The Greens believe that the current draft report still needs to be strengthened on a few key issues, despite clear improvements after the committee vote. The credibility of the EP on this issue is at stake and we believe citizens should weigh the talk of their MEP with their actual voting on the issue of transparency.
Firstly, the definition of lobbyists itself must be fully comprehensive. The conservatives (PPE-DE) as well as the liberals (ALDE ) are trying to exclude lobbyist lawyers from the scope of rules, something that has already been rejected before by the vote in committee. Lawyers play an increasingly important role in influencing policy in Brussels and they promote themselves as such on their own websites. Therefore, we believe that when they act as lobbyists, they must register in the same way as all other lobbyists.
Secondly, the strengthening of the financial disclosure requirements is another benchmark on how serious MEPs take the question of transparency. The core objective of this register is to bring to light the specific interests lobbyists actually represent and the most effective way to achieve this is to require detailed information on finances and expenditures linked to lobbying activities.
Thirdly, this register must be operational before the end of the term of this Parliament and the Commission in June 2009. Therefore, the Greens ask to have a common register for the institutions established by the end of this year, instead of the current anaemic proposal in the text that asks a working group to "consider the implications of such a register" by that time.
The EP should be the frontrunner in terms of democracy and transparency, and as a result the Greens ask that the EP register meets these requirements, in particular if progress on a common register moves slower than expected.
Finally, the Greens believe there must also be a serious sanction mechanism and therefore, at the very least, ask for the publication of those lobbyists who act in an unethical way."
Claude Turmes, draftsman of the unanimously adopted opinion in the Environment committee on the lobbying report said:
"The Greens, along with the other main political groups have co-signed 3 amendments to the text as adopted by the Environment committee. These amendments actually broaden the scope of this report by shedding the light on another way of lobbying the institutions and in particular the Commission - namely by influencing decision making directly from inside. The amendments address the problem of the so-called "revolving doors" problem and also the need to put an end to existing conflicts of interest in the advisory bodies of the Commission. This also includes people working inside the Commission but being paid by the private, governmental or non-governmental sectors.
MEPs have a responsibility to bring these concerns into this report and to put further pressure on the Commission to move beyond their simple promises that there is no problem."
