Commission launches face-saving transparency drive
All member states should fully disclose who gets what from the EU budget and all Brussels lobbyists should sign up to a voluntary register and code of conduct, the European Commission proposed in a new discussion paper on Wednesday (3 May).
The "European Transparency Initiative" is part of Brussels' drive to boost public sympathy after the 2005 EU constitution failure and to prevent a US-type Abramoff lobbying scandal.
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The budget proposals in the initiative could see a legal amendment to the EU's financial regulation by the end of the year, ending the current gag on the commission from giving out information on recipients of EU funds despite the efforts of NGOs such as Denmark's Farmsubsidy.org.
But the amendment, which requires a unanimous "yes" vote from member states, is facing resistance from 14 EU countries including Germany, Italy and Poland.
Some opponents fear the kind of controversy arising from voluntary disclosures in the UK, Denmark and the Netherlands, which showed that agricultural giants, aristocrats and government ministers pocket large chunks of the EU's €43 billion a year farm aid fund under the Common Agricultural Policy [CAP].
Others foresee clashes with member states' privacy laws, with one EU diplomat saying "In Germany, it's generally very difficult to find out anything about anybody else due to the constitution."
The commission's legal gag also covers EU regional aid and refugee funds, putting the total non-transparent spending figure at €87 billion a year, with the European Court of Auditors failing to sign off on the EU budget for 11 years in a row due to accountability gaps.
Lobbying gets bad name
On the lobbying side, aggressive campaigning by food companies on additives and by chemicals firms over the REACH environment bill have given the lobbying sector a bad name in recent years.
Some western European PR firms are also worried that the 2004 enlargement has caused a former communist culture of brown envelopes to take root in the European Parliament.
"We have had some indications in the press that there has been influence on some decisions, which are the result of interest groups, or that some circles have more access than others [to EU decision-makers]," administration commissioner Siim Kallas said.
The voluntary register blueprint would ideally see in-house corporate lobbyists, PR firms, lawyers and NGOs showing which clients they represent and how much cash they get for their services.
The voluntary code would be backed up by a "cocktail of sanctions" including naming and shaming, loss of security passes for the European Parliament and an informal commission blacklist on lunch invitations.
In a parallel move to the transparency green paper, the commission is also pushing MEPs, EU foreign affairs chief Javier Solana's staff and the European Court of Justice to sign up to a common code of conduct for EU officials.
Ideas include an independent panel of academics and former magistrates who would rule if it is OK or not OK for a commissioner to take a free air trip, or for an MEP who gets CAP funds to vote on the EU farm budget.
"We don't want to create an absurd situation where you can't even meet for dinner," a commission official said. "But if you are signing procurement cheques and your wife is preparing a bid, this should be visible."
Paper tiger?
Lobbyist federation EPACA, the European Ombudsman, and Liberal group MEPs welcomed the new ideas on lobbying, with Mr Kallas saying the voluntary nature of the system will avoid a legal quagmire that "would not have a result until the end of the existing commission."
But transparency NGOs say the measures are toothless, with the commission's previous voluntary register, CONNECS, launched in 1992, getting just 10 percent of Brussels lobbyists on board.
"Those lobbyists who want to stay in the shadow and not reveal their lobbying to the general public will continue to do so under this proposal," Erik Wesselius of Corporate Europe Observatory said.
"This time everybody might sign up, but it will make no difference," one independent Brussels-based lobbyist told EUobserver.
"Who's going to enforce it? Who's going to monitor compliance? EPACA?" he asked.