Brussels Sunshine

Twenty months after the launch of the Commission's voluntary lobbying register, less than 40 percent of Brussels-based lobby consultancies have signed up, according to a new survey from the transparency alliance ALTER-EU.

The Portuguese weekly Expresso reports that the Portuguese government is about to hire lobby consultancy firm Kreab & Gavin Anderson (KGA) to lobby on its behalf. Expresso writes that KGA will advice the government on the PR strategy for its Stability and Growth Pact, a new austerity program of welfare cuts and privatisations aimed to bring the country's deficits within EU limits.

The new European Commission (Barroso-II) took office on 10 February. Just seven dayslater insurance giant Munich Re announced that they had headhunted the out-going EU Commissioner for external relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner (2004-2010).

Friday 15 January late afternoon, Commission President Barroso replied to the letter that the President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek had sent him a day before.

During her hearing in Parliament on Tuesday 12 January, designate Commissioner Rumiana Jeleva came under fire over potential conflicts of interest resulting from undeclared business interests. She was also accused of irregularities in the declarations of financial interests that she filed as a member of the European Parliament (2007-2009).

Caroline Lucas MEP (Greens, UK) challenged the Trade Commissioner designate Karel de Gucht on the issue of corporate influence over EU trade policy when he appeared before the European Parliament hearing yesterday (12 January 2010).

While Commissioner Kallas certainly deserves praise, the paper titled "My results 2005-2009" posted on his website just before Christmas overstates his achievements on some key issues. The voluntary lobby transparency register simply suffers from too many shortcomings to be considered a success, as has been pointed out in numerous postings in this blog and by other observers.

Remarkably under-reported: an opinion poll published by Eurobarometer last week revealed that a growing share of European citizens considers corruption to be a serious problem. No less than 83% of the respondents believe that “there is corruption in national institutions” (ranging from 35% in Denmark to 98% in Greece).