Europe’s debut ‘Worst EU Lobbying’ Award 2005.

Backed by almost a billion euros per year, over 10,000 corporate lobbyists roam the corridors of power in Brussels. Ever more inventive and often problematic ways of gaining influence are gaining ground. Pretending to be concerned environmentalists, buying science, funding anarcho-capitalist think-tanks, and securing first class treatment and access by EU bodies, powerful lobby groups manage to get their interests satisfied.

And more is yet to come. As lobbying veteran Daniel Guéguen put it: “in the future […] we will tend to adopt ever tougher lobbying strategies […] that will probably involve practices such as manipulation, destabilisation or disinformation.”

After three weeks of on-line voting through this website, the Campaign for Creativity has been announced as the winner of the ‘Worst EU Lobbying’ Award 2005 at a festive ceremony in the Cinema Nova in Brussels, on 14 December 2005. Short report on the ceremony.

A special ‘black box prize’ was awarded to the lobbyists’ lobbies SEAP and EPACA, for their lobbying towards the European Commission to prevent that the European Transparency Initiative will include mandatory EU lobbying disclosure rules.

The ‘Worst EU Lobbying’ Award 2005 was organised by Corporate Europe Observatory in association with LobbyControl, Spinwatch and Friends of the Earth Europe

The selection of the ten nominees was based upon our own research and investigations throughout 2005 as well as upon media reports and other publications. In 2006, we will invite you, the public, to nominate your personal favourite cases of slippery spin and disinformation for the ‘Worst EU Lobbying’ Award 2006.

Naming and shaming is one way to discourage such controversial lobbying practices. The cases also highlight the need to establish new rules for European lobbying, like mandatory disclosure. Lobbyists should be obliged to tell the public who they are working for, what budget they are using and which policies they want to influence.

For more in depth information on EU lobbying, have a look at about the award and check out these websites:

www.corporateeurope.org
www.lobbycontrol.de
www.foeeurope.org
www.spinwatch.org
www.alter-eu.org