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Update on Commission lobby register: Only 24% of Brussels lobby organisations registered
On 4 June, ALTER-EU published a detailed report highlighting the flawed information contained in the register and putting forward concrete proposals that should be taken into account as the Commission prepares to present a review of the register next month.
The main findings of ALTER-EU’s updated assessment of the register are:
- the total number of registrations is now 1604, of which only 625 have offices in Brussels;
- less than 24% of Brussels-based lobby organisations and firms have registered so far (based on the European Parliament’s estimate of 2,600 lobby groups with offices in Brussels in 2000);[1]
- the European Public Affairs Directory lists 165 consultancies in Brussels. Only 25 of these are on the Commission’s register, putting the compliance rate for this crucial category at a meagre 15%;
- of the 330 companies listed in the European Public Affairs Directory, only 86 feature in the Commission's register (26%).
The new figures confirm the conclusions of the ALTER-EU study published earlier this month. The study also shows that:
- think-tanks and law firms are boycotting the register;
- unclear financial disclosure requirements allow lobby groups to disguise the size of their lobbying effort, making it impossible to determine who the biggest spenders really are and what policies they are trying to influence;[2]
- the lack of clear guidelines also means that the register is increasingly cluttered by associations that play no role in lobbying the EU.[3]
ALTER-EU calls on the Commissions to:
- develop a mandatory system to replace the current voluntary one in 2010;
- close loopholes on financial disclosure and provide clear and broad definitions of what constitutes lobbying;
- provide transparency on the identity of lobbyists (names of individual lobbyists must be listed);
- punish non-compliance and disclosure of misleading information;
- end exemptions for sectors such as competition policy.
To download the ALTER-EU report and to see the accompanying press release, go to:
http://www.alter-eu.org/en/publications/commissions-lobby-register-one-year-success-or-failure
http://www.greenpeace.org/eu-unit/press-centre/press-releases2/lobby-register-report-09-06-04
Notes to Editor
[1] The European Parliament estimated that 2,600 lobby organisations had offices in Brussels in 2000. The Commission has on various occasions estimated the total number of individual lobbyists at over 15,000. The Commission register currently does not list the names or the number of lobbyists working for lobby organisations.
[2] The European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic), the industry lobby group in Brussels, declares that only 0.1% of its turnover is spent on lobbying activities (under €50,000 out of €37.9 million). Entries for consultancies Hill&Knowlton and Burson-Marsteller simply list clients as each falling under 10% of their turnover, in other words within a wide and vague range of €0 to €690,000 and €810,000 respectively.
[3] Examples range from the ‘German Erotic Trade Association’, that estimates its lobbying costs at €10, to the ‘Surfrider Foundation of Europe’, with a lobby budget of zero.
Contact information
-
Jorgo Riss – Director, Greenpeace European Unit: +32 (0)2 274 1907, jorgo.riss@greenpeace.org
Erik Wesselius – Corporate Europe Observatory: +31 30 2364422, erik@corporateeurope.org
Olivier Hoedemen – Research coordinator, Corporate Europe Observatory: +32 (0)474 48 65 45 (mobile), olivier@corporateeurope.org
Press: Mark Breddy – +32 (0)2 274 19 03, +32 (0)496 15 62 29 (mobile), mark.breddy@greenpeace.org
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