International

From the time of his appointment as Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans has placed a great deal of emphasis on transparency in Brussels. As part of this he proposed the establishment of a new, improved lobby register. Now it turns out that it will probably take years to set such a register up. The SP European Parliament group is far from satisfied with this. Together with like-minded MEPs we will be stepping up the pressure over the next few weeks. Shady lobbying practices must not be allowed to continue for years and years.

The media have given much attention to Timmermans’ plans to offer more clarity regarding the influence of lobbyists in Brussels. As far as that goes, we’re on the same side. However, as the old saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. What’s important is what concrete measures we can now expect.

Now Timmermans has indeed already taken an important measure, in that only registered lobbyists have access to the European Commissioners and other top officials of the Commission. In order to tighten up the register itself, however, Timmermans says that the earliest a proposal can be produced is the end of the year and that he’s aiming for an agreement not only, as previously, with the European Parliament, but with the Council of Ministers as well. This means that talks will last at least a year, while the introductory period before an agreement can be brought into force will be a further few months, so that with all speed it will be the end of 2017 before an improved register is up and running. That is far too late.

By expressly involving the Council, Timmermans is complicating the matter. Of course there are lobbyists who direct their activities at the Council, but the officials who work there have a great deal less power than do their colleagues in the Commission and the Parliament. When it comes to diplomats and government ministers, talks are often quickly transferred to national capitals or at any rate outside of the complex of the EU institutions’ buildings in Brussels. So the question is also whether the lobby register will include much more useful information if the Council of Ministers is on board, while it’s well-known that the Council itself isn’t keen on the idea.

I would argue that in order to stop discussion of the new lobby register from lasting years, we should restrict ourselves to making agreements between the Commission and the Parliament. If Timmermans, say, were to bring forward proposals right after the summer recess, we could get right down to work and without the complications arising from the inclusion of the Council we should be able to deal with this rapidly: taking measures to exclude unregistered lobbyists; broadening the group of lobbyists obliged to register to include those not so obliged, principally legal offices and research institutes who are currently overlooked, despite the fact that they are often just ordinary lobbyists too; tightening the Code of Conduct for lobbyists; and improving the reliability of the data listed.

The group of like-minded MEPs – an Intergroup in the EU jargon – of which I am joint Chair, wants to help Timmermans with our ideas and proposals. If he sticks to his own time-line, we will in the meantime elaborate our own proposals and send them to him in a few weeks. This is meant to provide inspiration, given that our patience is not infinite.