Brussels Sunshine

Lobby-regulation becomes election campaign issue in Netherlands, Austria and elsewhere

27.05.2009

With just days to go before the European Parliamentary elections, concerns about the role of industry lobbyists in EU decision-making - and the lack of transparency and ethics - have become an issue in election debates in several countries. These are just some highlights.

MEP-turned-lobbyist shuns voluntary register

20.05.2009

A few weeks ago, in our ‘Inside the Brussels Bubble’ blog, we wondered how many of the MEPs not standing for re-election would go through the revolving door into new jobs as industry lobbyists.

May 20, 2009 - 12:57

20.05.2009

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Merritt’s allergic reaction to lobby transparency

23.04.2009

A month ago we praised European Commissioner Kallas in this blog for his insistence that think tanks must join the lobby transparency register, as their activities are aimed clearly at influencing EU decision-making.

Is the writing on the wall for public affairs professionals?

07.04.2009

The Commission is due to evaluate the effectiveness of its voluntary lobby register, but so far, more than 70% of the companies in the Society of European Affairs Professionals (SEAP) haven't registered.Yesterday, the Society of European Affairs Professionals (SEAP) held its General Assembly in the the Residence Palace in Brussels. I haven't seen the agenda, but, I'd hazard a guess that the European Commission’s voluntary register and code of conduct for interest representatives formed one of the main topics discussed at the meeting.

Commission continues to grant privileged access to unregistered lobbyists

20.03.2009

Think tank says boycott of register is 'a matter of principle'

19.03.2009

In an article on the European Commission's lobby register, Dirk Jan Hekking, Brussels correspondent of Het Financieele Dagblad, notes that law firms and think tanks continue to boycott the register. Among the major Brussels-based think tanks only the European Policy Centre has registered.

Secrecy prevails among EU banking lobbies

09.03.2009

When compared to the US mandatory lobbying disclosure system, the EU’s voluntary and flawed lobbying register does not provide anywhere near the same level of transparency and accountability for financial services industry lobbying.

At least a dozen dubious entries in the Commission's lobby register

11.02.2009

At least twelve organisations registered in the Commission’s lobbying register could be more virtual than real. Here’s the story of how I found out.

GPlus back on EU lobbying register after disclosing previously unnamed clients

02.02.2009

One and a half week after this blog broke the news of the suspension of Brussels lobby firm GPlus from the European Commission’s lobbying register, the company is back on the register after having disclosed four previously unnamed clients.

Lobby register fails transparency test, new report concludes

30.01.2009

Earlier this week, the ALTER-EU coalition published the report “Commission lobby register fails transparency test”.This first in-depth assessment of the Commission’s register concludes that the voluntary approach is failing: the compliance rate is alarmingly low and the overall quality of information disclosed is very poor.

Commission suspends registration by GPlus

19.01.2009

Gplus's mystery clientsAs the registration had been on line since 15 December, the question is what information the Commission considered incomplete.Luckily, the suspended registration itself can still be found on line. Under "Other (financial) information" we read that GPlus took the liberty of not listing all its clients:

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