By Martin Banks - 2nd December 2010
This is unacceptable
Paul de Clerck
Campaigners have repeated their call for the European commission to halt the "privileged access" granted to the executive to "big business."
The demand comes amid growing concern about the ongoing failure to introduce a mandatory register for the thousands of lobbyists in Brussels.
At present, a register exists but it is purely voluntary, leading to claims that it is "totally ineffectual."
Efforts led by UK Liberal Diana Wallis which would make it compulsory for lobby firms to register have so far failed.
There is also concern about a trend with former commissioners, like ex-industry commissioner Gunter Verheugen and Charlie McCreevy, the former commissioner for internal market, moving into highly paid lobby jobs after leaving their EU posts
Transparency campaigners believe this could amount to a potential conflict of interest.
On Thursday, the awards from an online EU-wide poll were given to those companies which, it is claimed, represent the "worst of lobbying tactics" in Brussels.
The awards are part of an ongoing campaign to expose and counter what is called "dirty lobbying tactics and privileged access impacting on EU decision-making."
Overall, Goldman Sachs and derivatives lobby group ISDA were named the worst EU lobbyists of 2010.
In the climate category, German energy giant RWE's subsidiary npower, nominated for "claiming to be green while lobbying to keep its dirty coal and oil-fired power plants open" won with 58 per cent of the total vote.
BusinessEurope, nominated for its "aggressive lobbying to block effective climate action in the EU while claiming to support action to protect the climate", took second place with 24 per cent of the total votes and Arcelor-Mittal, the steel Industry
"fat cat", came in third with 18 per cent of the total votes.
Nina Katzemich, speaking for the organisers, said that voters had sent a "clear message" to EU transparency and ethics commissioner Maroš Šefcovic.
She said, "The message is that a major clean-up of the Brussels lobbying scene is urgently needed, and it's time the commission put public interest above the commercial interests of large companies.
"These awards show that people around Europe are fed up with deceptive lobbying practices used by big business when it comes to climate regulation."
Her comments were echoed by Paul de Clerck, of Friends of the Earth, who said, "Despite the unprecedented crisis following the financial meltdown, intense lobbying by large banks and investment firms continues to delay and seriously water down much-needed regulatory reforms.
"While people around the world are suffering severe consequences, corporate lobbyists are blocking any measure that could limit the massive profits of banks. This is unacceptable.
"We call on the European commission to put an end to the privileged access granted to big business, for instance limiting their access to EU advisory groups on future financial regulation."
