Self-congratulation will not bring about lobby transparency

28.11.2012

The European Commission yesterday published the annual report assessing the first year of the new EU lobby transparency register (which they run jointly with the Parliament). In an online comment piece, Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič claimed that “all our short-term objectives [have been] met”. The Commission’s press release referred to the “successful implementation of the objectives set forth at the launch of the Transparency Register in June 2011”.

This positive assessment contrasts sharply with the findings of two recent reports by the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU) who examined the data in the register. They concluded that the promises made by Commissioner Šefčovič at the launch of the register “have not yet been delivered on.” The data showed that a significant proportion of Brussels-based lobbyists remained unregistered and law firms had failed to sign up.

Their analysis also showed that the Transparency Register fails to provide much additional information, such as the nature of the issues lobbied on. Under-reporting of lobby expenditure remains a serious problem and the reliability of the data in the Transparency Register is shaky.

When the annual report was published, I realised that its conclusions don't refer to the promises made by Commissioner Šefčovič at the launch in June 2011, but to the “deliberatively pragmatic” objectives which apparently were set for the Joint Transparency Register Secretariat in its first year [note: Annual Report, Executive Summary]. These objectives largely focused on technical matters that – while important for the functioning of the register – were far too modest to contribute to any real progress towards the goal of a de facto mandatory register containing comprehensive and reliable information about EU lobbying, as Sefcovic had promised.

The objectives for the second year, unfortunately, also lack ambition. The most promising is the objective of improving the quality of the content of the register by “enforcing strict compliance with the rules by registrants”, but it remains unclear how this will be done. Expanding the number of registrations “through further external information and communication efforts” and extending “use of the scheme by staff and Members” in the Commission and the Parliament is too soft an approach to tackle the problem of unregistered lobbyists. This lack of ambition is a real problem.

The report comes only weeks after the Dalligate scandal, which revealed that the former Health Commissioner John Dalli had held meetings with unregistered lobbyists. Other Commissioners have also routinely met with unregistered lobbyists, a practice that raises questions about how serious the Commission is about lobby transparency.

The report contains interesting statistics on the use of the register as well as on the complaints procedure (although it is worrying that complaints about misinformation are treated merely as ‘alerts’). The report includes a very appropriate definition of the register’s purpose: helping citizens “exercise their right to know who may be seeking to influence the preparation of decisions on various levels.” And it emphasises that the review of the register that is scheduled to start in June 2013 will consider wider options for improving the register, including making registration mandatory for all lobbyists.

Commissioner Šefčovič ends his piece by mentioning that he is aware “that a number of organisations are critical of the register”. He says that he prefers “to take a more positive approach” and that he is “hopeful we will be able to convince the sceptics”. Corporate Europe Observatory and the ALTER-EU coalition are among those who remain critical of the current register because of its real-world weaknesses. We have made numerous constructive proposals for solving the shortcomings and will continue to do so.

If Sefcovic really wants to convince us, it is very simple: he needs to demonstrate a little less self congratulation and a little more action to actually improve the register so it delivers genuine lobby transparency for the citizens of the EU.