International

Several weeks ago I had a lengthy discussion with the European Ombudsman during which we agreed to work together to make Brussels more transparent. The Ombudsman shares my concerns regarding the influence of major corporations on the European institutions' decisions. He expressed great interest in the action plan that I launched last year, a plan directed at both the Commission and at the European Parliament itself. This week it transpired that he had meant what he said, when he instructed the Commission, as soon as is possible, to make public the hitherto secret letters from Porsche, sent in 2007 with the clear intention of influencing the Commission in its preparation of a decision regarding CO2 emissions from cars. The Commission has resisted this tooth and nail, which would hardly have been necessary had they had nothing to hide.

The Commission is always talking about the need for the European public to be more involved with 'Brussels'. They complain heartily when the umpteenth survey reveals the lack of interest ordinary people show in European decisions. Yet at the same time it turns out again and again how lacking in openness the Commission is when it comes to real information. You can get countless leaflets, but as for letters from lobbyists, you can forget it.

In 2007 Friends of the Earth asked the Commission for the Porsche letters. In itself it was already quite a feat to find out that such letters existed at all. You'd better find that out, however, because otherwise, should you put a question to the Commission simply asking for all information sent by lobbyists on a particular subject, your request will be summarily rejected on the grounds that it isn't sufficiently clear.

According to the Commission the letters from Porsche could not be made public due to commercial interests which might be involved in the matter. The Ombudsman found this to be nonsense and advised the Commission to go ahead and publish. More than a year later the Commission announced that parts of the letters would be made public. The Ombudsman was totally justified in being angry about this, not only because the Commission had reacted so tardily, but also because absolutely no substantial argument had been presented as to why the whole of the content could not be published.

All of this stinks, just as you would expect it to, but it was already known that Commissioner Gunter Verheugen had been responsible for this dossier in the last Commission and that he had close links with the auto industry. And apparently the letters contain passages that make this once again quite clear. No wonder that ordinary people feel detached from European decision-making. As long as politics is conducted in back rooms and nothing is done about this, you can have no faith in an institution like the Commission.

The SP's European team is not going to let this lie. We will be staying in close contact with the Ombudsman and during the autumn will attempt, in a number of meetings, to strengthen the group of Euro-MPs willing to work for greater transparency.