EPACA reacts to nomination for Worst EU Lobbying Award

Like the other candidates, EPACA was offered the possibility to submit a written comment on their nomination. We publish the reaction, as received by email from the EPACA secretariat on 14 November. with our comments below.

Mr Hoedeman,

EPACA would like to take this opportunity to clarify that CEO and its partners do not have their facts right. There has been no ’shift’ in our position with regards to a voluntary vs. a mandatory system. During the initial discussions regarding a European Transparency Initiative in 2005 and the “Communication to the Commission from the President, Ms Wallström, Mr Kallas, Ms Hübner and Ms Fischer Boel – Proposing the Launch of a European Transparency Initiative”[1], there was no reference to any kind of financial disclosure for interest groups and lobbyists whatsoever, but instead, an examination of the different options for a register (voluntary vs. compulsory).

It is with these options in mind that EPACA had originally voiced support for a voluntary register, as its members had themselves already adopted and signed up to a Code of Conduct going further than the minimum standards proposed by the Commission at the time. However, with the inclusion thereafter of financial disclosure requirements, EPACA believes only a mandatory system could guarantee a level playing field.

We trust this helps clarify an apparent misunderstanding, which unfortunately resulted in CEO disseminating misleading information about EPACA – a practice contrary to the European Commission’s minimum requirements for special interest groups’ code of conduct.

Worst EU Lobbying Awards organisers’ reaction

Contrary to what EPACA claims in its ‘clarification’, financial disclosure requirements did not suddenly emerge out of the blue in the Commission’s final proposals on lobbying transparency (presented 21 March 2007). From the very beginning, financial disclosure was a central element in Commissioner Kallas’ plans. In the March 2005 speech when Commissioner Kallas announced the European Transparency Initiative, he made it very clear that the lobbyists register he wanted to put in place “should also contain financial information.”[1] The May 2006 Green Paper unmistakably confirmed this ambition: “When lobby groups seek to contribute to EU policy development, it must be clear to the general public which input they provide to the European institutions. It must also be clear who they represent, what their mission is and how they are funded.”[2] From the start, the key question in the ETI debate has been HOW TO (not whether to) improve transparency around EU lobbying, and the Commission always included transparency on the money behind lobbying in its definition of lobbying transparency.

EPACA’s approach in this debate has been consistently unconstructive and pre-occupied with preserving the status quo. When the Commission in March this year presented its plans for an EU lobbyists’ register, initially on a voluntary basis, civil society groups campaigning for mandatory lobby disclosure expressed their support for the Commission’s initiative, considering the proposal an important first step in the right direction. EPACA, in sharp contrast, launched an aggressive counter-campaign, even including threats of boycotting the transparency register. At the same time, EPACA claimed that it “views transparency and openness as fundamental to the integrity of the integrity of the lobbying profession”.[3]

It is this hypocrisy that makes EPACA an excellent candidate to win the Worst EU Lobbying Award 2007.

The organisers of the “Worst EU Lobbying” Awards 2007

Notes

1. The need for a European transparency initiative, speech by Siim Kallas at The European Foundation for Management, Nottingham Business School, Nottingham, 3 March 2005.
   
   Reporting by EurActiv and numerous other media confirms that it was entirely clear to everyone from the beginning that the Commission also wanted transparency about how lobbyists are financed: “The plan outlined by Kallas includes proposals to force the thousands of NGOs, lawyers and professional lobbyists in Brussels to report on the specific interest they represent and how they are financed”. Kallas pushes for more transparency and ethics in EU policy-making, Thursday 19 May 2005.
2. Green Paper on a European Transparency Initiative, European Commission, May 2006.
3. http://www.epaca.org/policy/documents/EPACA%20ETI%20position%20280607.pdf