EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - One year after its launch, the European Commission says pure "market forces" are ensuring its lobbyist register is a success but critics say the refusal to make it mandatory is a fatal weakness as law firms and think-tanks drag their feet in signing up. With 1,600 entries on the register, representing thousands of individual lobbyists, and a signing up rate of about 30 to 40 a week, the commission says its "voluntary approach (..) has been confirmed by these numbers." The commission has no plans to make the register mandatory Corporate inhouse lobbyists and trade representatives account for around 900 of the entries with the system asking for the area of interest, number of employees and amount of money spent of representing its interests to the EU. NGOs make up most of the rest. Jens Nymand Christensen, the commission official in charge of the issue, said commission staff is now being actively encouraged to ask lobbyists or companies looking for some face time if they are in the register.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - One year after its launch, the European Commission says pure "market forces" are ensuring its lobbyist register is a success but critics say the refusal to make it mandatory is a fatal weakness as law firms and think-tanks drag their feet in signing up.
With 1,600 entries on the register, representing thousands of individual lobbyists, and a signing up rate of about 30 to 40 a week, the commission says its "voluntary approach (..) has been confirmed by these numbers."
The commission has no plans to make the register mandatory
Corporate inhouse lobbyists and trade representatives account for around 900 of the entries with the system asking for the area of interest, number of employees and amount of money spent of representing its interests to the EU. NGOs make up most of the rest.
Jens Nymand Christensen, the commission official in charge of the issue, said commission staff is now being actively encouraged to ask lobbyists or companies looking for some face time if they are in the register.
Only 24% of Brussels lobbies registered, but Commission claims success On the first anniversary of the European Commission's lobby transparency register, less than one in four Brussels-based lobby groups and firms have signed up. At a press briefing yesterday, however, the Commission hailed the register as "a success" and argued that "the numbers do not point to an instant need to make registration compulsory." For the ALTER-EU coalition, in contrast, such a large majority ignoring the register proves the failure of the Commission's voluntary approach. ALTER-EU yesterday published an updated assessment of the register which shows that: the total number of registrations is now 1604, of which only 625 have offices in Brussels; less than 24% of Brussels-based lobby organisations and firms have registered so far (based on the European Parliament's estimate of 2,600 lobby groups with offices in Brussels in 2000); the European Public Affairs Directory lists 165 consultancies in Brussels. Just 25 of these are on the Commission's register, putting the compliance rate for this crucial category at a meagre 15%; Of the 330 companies listed in the European Public Affairs Directory, only 86 feature in the Commission's register, which means that just 26% of companies with Brussels-based lobby offices have registered. On 4 June, ALTER-EU published a detailed report highlighting the flawed information contained in the register and putting forward concrete proposals for solving the shortcomings.
On the first anniversary of the European Commission's lobby transparency register, less than one in four Brussels-based lobby groups and firms have signed up. At a press briefing yesterday, however, the Commission hailed the register as "a success" and argued that "the numbers do not point to an instant need to make registration compulsory."
For the ALTER-EU coalition, in contrast, such a large majority ignoring the register proves the failure of the Commission's voluntary approach.
ALTER-EU yesterday published an updated assessment of the register which shows that:
