International

In all the sturm und drang of an election it’s easy to forget that next week the European Parliament will awake from its summer sleep. Things should, moreover, be quite exciting: at least I will have the chance to enter into serious negotiations with the European Commission over the composition and transparency of its advisory ‘expert groups’, while on Thursday we will vote on the question of whether the finance for these groups, which we recently blocked, can now be released. That would be fine, but only if the Commission guarantees that the expert groups will cease to be the playthings of major corporations, and instead be opened to representatives of all interest groups, including workers, consumers and small business.

The SP’s European Parliament team has been working on this question – reforming the Commission’s hundreds of expert groups – for some time. These groups are important, as the Commission often asks them for advice on impending legislation, advice which is in large part accepted. Because the big corporations’ professional lobbyists know precisely when a new expert group is to be established, they are invariably there with nominees like a flash. For other interest groups it is often much more problematic to find out just when such a body is about to be constituted. For a small, independent firm it’s a great deal more difficult to find the time to attend a meeting than it is for the professional lobbyists, who are after all paid by major corporations to be there.

This is why, together with a group of like-minded MEPs from all of the major political groups, I have tabled a number of concrete demands: that all information regarding the expert groups be made available via a single website, including the establishment of any new expert groups, as well as meeting agendas and conclusions, and minority standpoints. We also want this website to state clearly that participants in expert groups are entitled to reclaim their expenses, at least if they are not employed by professional lobbying organisations. Such reimbursements should cover not only travel costs but also a payment for any work done. Furthermore, the Commission should cease defining people who work for companies or interest groups as ‘experts appointed in their own capacity’. And finally, we want to see it demonstrated that all relevant interests are represented in an even-handed fashion.

For a long time the Commission has been attempting to avoid dealing with this group of like-minded Members by sweet-talking the MEP responsible for this matter in the Parliament’s Budget Committee. Fortunately she has, with our backing, stood her ground and forced the Commission to take us seriously. It’s probable, as well as to be hoped, that the debate this week will be difficult but frank, but I have every confidence that our demands will be met. For an honest Commission which genuinely wanted to look to the interests of all of the public and not only those of major corporations, these demands would present no problems at all.