EU steps back from lobbyist crackdown

Corporate or NGO lobbyists will not have to sign up to a compulsory register under ethics and openness proposals unveiled on Wednesday, Siim Kallas has told Parliament Magazine.

The European commission vice-president responsible for administrative reform and transparency is seeking to avoid a legal minefield, complications have already delayed proposals.

“To start legislation with compulsory registration would face enormous legal difficulties. We would not achieve anything until after the end of our mandate, that is quite sure,” he said.

“If we have voluntary registration, the vast majority of interested parties, if they join, will be covered by commonly agreed rules. Like this, we will probably achieve more.”

The European commission estimates that at present less than 1000 out of up to 15,000 lobbyists have signed up to any code of conduct or register of interests.

Kallas stresses that the compulsory “option is not excluded if we do not succeed” and the industry fails to make self-regulation work.

“We have had good contacts with different parties and different lobbying organisations, from the business side and the NGOs. They have declared a readiness to cooperate and there have even been proposals on a code of conduct,” he said.

“I do not underestimate the difficulties when we come to the details. But there are codes of conduct and in general all parties accept the general principles: that unacceptable tools cannot be used to achieve your goals and that you must be open, visible, to create legitimacy for decision-making.”

“The basic principles are not contested. We will see, so far there has been goodwill for cooperation.”

Kallas will be in the European parliament on May 3 – the day he unveils the long-awaited green paper proposing ethics and openness rules for EU institutions and lobbyists.

The commission vice-president for administrative affairs, audit and anti-fraud – dubbed “Mr Triple A” by his boss José Manuel Barroso – will appear before MEPs on the budgetary control committee – known by its acronym of Cocubu.

The Estonian will be present to discuss budget discharge, the spending, by and within the rules, of EU cash and also to tell MEPs about his “European transparency initiative”.

Kallas is clear about the main point he will make: the European parliament needs to rally behind his push to create an EU ethics body to police a code of conduct for European law-makers.

As he notes, his comments will have strong resonance with his Cocubu allies as MEPs currently unpick a scandal concerning overspending on, or overcharging for, the parliament’s Strasbourg seat.

“The parliament works in the same ethical field as the other European institutions. Yes, we are separate bodies and institutions with agreements that each handles its issues autonomously but the field is the same,” he says.

“They have been discussing the huge issue of overspending of money in Strasbourg, there is now a problem in parliament but for public opinion it creates the idea that in all European institutions there is a problem. Most citizens do not make a distinction between the commission, the parliament, Committee of the Regions and so on.”

“We have the same ethical field and we want to have some kind of cooperation with codes of conduct and openness of information.”

The former Estonian central banker, prime minister, foreign and finance minister quickly warms to discussing a six-year-old post-Santer commission idea for an ethics committee to monitor an EU code of conduct – and to adjudicate when issues arise.

And, issues have arisen, not least the negative headlines surrounding Barroso’s August 2004 holiday with a Greek shipping tycoon.

Kallas believes the existing code of conduct works but needs someone to evaluate the kind of situations that life inevitably throws up for legislators.

“The code of conduct is very developed and good, compared to other codes. But life sometimes poses questions and we must somehow have a body that can then be consulted,” he argues.

“There is a grey area. We have a text but it needs to be estimated. This kind of body, some kind of committee of wise men for all institutions, the commission has recommended it in 2000, to give answers to questions and evaluate what to do.”

• Previous article
• Next article