Greens question President Pöttering about stealth lobbyists in parliament

Provided by Dods EU monitoring

Source: Greens/EFA group press release

Date published: April 15 2008

Two weeks ago, the Greens/EFA group in the European parliament wrote to the parliament president Hans-Gert Pöttering with a question regarding the activities of the European business and parliament scheme (EPBS). The letter is yet to receive a response. Monica Frassoni, co-president of the Greens/EFA group will raise the question at the next meeting of group leaders on Thursday 17 April. She commented:

"The presidency of the parliament must shed light on the activities of the European business and parliament scheme to ensure it does not pursue any hidden lobbyist agenda. According to its statute, EPBS is only a parliamentary educational resource for parliament members and staff and for the political groups. However recent events have raised serious doubts about this organisation's true agenda.

In preparation for the upcoming Eurolat plenary session (29 April - 1 May in Lima, Peru), the parliament's Vice-president Vidal Quadras Roca wrote a letter to the Eurolat chairman José Ignacio Salafranco asking him to make all participants of this meeting aware of opportunities to visit member companies of the European business and parliament scheme.

This invitation seems totally at odds with the common code of principles by the international association of business and parliament (IABP), the body that manages the EBPS programme. The code applies to the EBPS programme and demands 'programmes ensure that enterprises undertake not to use their relationship for lobbying'.

The member companies in the invitation include Suez, BBVA, BP and Telefónica, all mentioned by name. Telefónica will host an event informing participants on how the company promotes the abolition of child labour. The problem is that the companies mentioned have been severely criticised for some of their practices in Latin America and an information event with the European parliament can be interpreted as a positive public relations exercise to foster public goodwill.

The Greens also want to know why the IABP has been given an office in the European parliament and use e-mail addresses ending with 'europarl.europa.eu', giving the impression that the IABP is an official European parliament body. The fact that Hans-Gert Pöttering is patron of the EBPS cannot justify the provision of rent -free offices in the parliament with costs of telecommunication and telephone paid by the parliament. The Greens call upon the parliament's presidency to clarify the situation without delay."

• Previous article
• Next article