[open-government] (no subject)

Fri Nov 8 15:13:59 UTC 2013

Hey all,

We are encouraging everyone to *sign the petition launched by the ALTER-EU
coalition
<https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Full_EU_lobby_transparency_now/?cTRmlbb>
and demand better lobbying regulation in the EU.*

Read more here:
http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2013/11/08/the-eu-lobbyist-register-needs-fixing/

The EU lobbyist register needs
fixing<http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2013/11/08/the-eu-lobbyist-register-needs-fixing/>
by Júlia Keseru <http://sunlightfoundation.com/people/jkeseru/> and Greg
Brown <http://sunlightfoundation.com/people/gbrown/>Nov. 8, 2013, 8:30 a.m.

After a summer of debate, the EU working group responsible for
reviewing<http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/bibliotheque/briefing/2013/130538/LDM_BRI(2013)130538_REV1_EN.pdf>
the
joint lobbyist register<http://ec.europa.eu/transparencyregister/info/homePage.do>
of
the European Commission and European Parliament is poised to make
recommendations for the future of the register. Strong regulations can shed
light on how lobbyists shape the policy making process in the EU. However,
the register in its current form is “unsustainable, misguided and simply
not credible” -- according to a detailed
report<http://www.alter-eu.org/sites/default/files/documents/Rescue_the_Register_report_25June2013.pdf>
by
the ALTER - EU <http://www.alter-eu.org/>, a coalition of about 200 civil
society groups, trade unions, academics and public affairs firms concerned
with the increasing influence exerted by corporate lobbyists on the
political agenda in Europe.

The Sunlight Foundation applauds efforts to create more transparency around
lobbying in the EU and encourages everyone to sign the petition launched by
the ALTER-EU coalition<https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Full_EU_lobby_transparency_now/?cTRmlbb>
.

[image: lobby] <http://sunlightfoundation.com/media/2013/11/lobby.png>
Voluntary registry

The most significant weakness in the EU disclosure system is that it is
voluntary: lobbyists are encouraged to register, but are not mandated to do
so by law. The voluntary nature of the register limits its reach and allows
major players to remain hidden. Law firms that are active in lobbying in
the EU, for example, have almost universally
boycotted<http://corporateeurope.org/blog/secret-lobbying-law-firms-shows-need-mandatory-transparency-register>
the
registration process, crippling the public’s ability to understand the
policymaking process. (Take a look at this
map<http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/10/18/world/europe/brussels-lobbyists.html?ref=europe>
which
shows some of the registered lobbying firms in Brussels. While the map
provides a nice visualization, it probably represents only the very tip of
the iceberg.)
Unreliable data

The ALTER - EU report also highlights problems with the completeness and
accuracy of the disclosed data in the EU transparency register. Unreliable
reporting, including outdated information, incomplete client lists, and
under- or over- reporting of lobby expenditures are common problems.
According to the registry, for example, a small Portuguese printing company
spends five times as much on lobbying as Google or BNP Paribas. Lobbyists
often use abbreviations or acronyms when listing their employers or
clients, making it impossible to identify on whose behalf they are
lobbying. In many cases registrants simply refuse to provide meaningful
data by giving vague and elusive answers, such as listing “various NGOs,
government entities, local councils, SMEs, religious institutions” as their
clients.
Missing information, no real oversight

And the list of problems goes on. Some registrants report zero (!)
individuals involved in their lobbying activities. (So who’s doing the
actual lobbying?) Most registrants provide vague descriptions of lobbying
activities, such as “all topics that matter to European companies” or
“none”. (So why register at all?) Furthermore, the EU has no enforcement
mechanism to investigate the accuracy of the information provided, and
apart from removing lobbying entities from the registry, a questionable
punishment for a voluntary system that is supposed to encourage disclosure,
there are no real mechanisms to penalize those who fail to comply.

[image: lobby2] <http://sunlightfoundation.com/media/2013/11/lobby2.png>
The need for better disclosure

In its current form, the EU lobbyist registry cannot fulfill its role as an
oversight instrument, as it does not empower watchdogs and citizens to
identify who is lobbying EU institutions on whose behalf and what issues.
Unreliable reporting might give the public ‘false
confidence<http://www.theparliament.com/no_cache/latestnews/news-article/newsarticle/eu-lobby-register-fails-to-increase-transparency/>’
that there is oversight of lobbying, and the lack of enforcement might even
have some stronger downside effects, best demonstrated by Hungary`s
lobbying law which was regarded as a “hypocritical beauty spot on the
system<http://blogs.wsj.com/emergingeurope/2012/11/29/hungary-scraps-plans-to-regulate-lobbying/>”
 and abandoned after a “failed 5-year of existence”.

The Sunlight Foundation strongly encourage everyone to sign the petition
launched by the ALTER-EU
coalition<https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Full_EU_lobby_transparency_now/?cTRmlbb>
and
demand better lobbying regulation in Brussels. Below you will find links
detailing our recommendations on lobbying transparency in the US. We are
creating more detailed guidelines that apply to other national contexts to
help local activists and policy-makers improve their systems.

On Lobbying Disclosure:

http://sunlightfoundation.com/issues/lobbying/

On Data Disclosure:

http://sunlightfoundation.com/opendataguidelines/
Tags:

-- 
Júlia Keserű
International Program Coordinator

1818 N Street NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20036
(1) 202-742-1520 *280

[image: Sunlight Foundation] <http://sunlightfoundation.com/> [image:
Sunlight Foundation on
Facebook]<http://www.facebook.com/sunlightfoundation>[image:
Sunlight Foundation on Twitter] <http://twitter.com/sunfoundation>[image:
OpenGov on Reddit] <http://www.reddit.com/r/sunlight> [image: Sunlight
Foundation on YouTube] <http://www.youtube.com/sunlightfoundation>
<http://sunlightfoundation.com/feeds/latest/>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/open-government/attachments/20131108/68d898b4/attachment.html>