International

On 2nd May I presented the demand of the all-party Transparency Intergroup in the European Parliament for an obligatory transparency register to the responsible European Commissioner, Frans Timmermans. One of the questions with which we are still struggling concerns the position of the member states’ diplomatic representation in Brussels. Should the Dutch ambassador to the European Union also be obliged to receive only registered lobbyists?

A recent investigation by lobbying watchdog ALTER-EU shows that that an increasing number of meetings with unregistered lobbyists are being organised by the diplomatic representatives (often called the 'permanent representatives'). I personally regularly receive from the Dutch permanent representatives invitations to such networking events. I very seldom go, but according to ALTER-EU, these meetings with unregistered lobbyists are increasingly likely to take place at the offices of the permanent representatives. This reduces to a farce the obligation to register, because the lobbyists who in the past would have used the Commission buildings or the Parliament for their meetings have now simply shifted them to the 'permanent representatives' buildings. They can equally well meet the representatives of all of the EU institutions there as here.

Timmermans has often made it clear that he wants to see the current rules, which oblige the Commission and the European Parliament to respect the transparency register, extended to the Council, the body which directly represents the member state governments. Yet even then the question remains as to whether the permanent representatives will fall under these rules. These are after all not EU institutions, but national representatives. Whether the Council, which is an EU institution, will go along with this remains in any event to be seen. This doesn't seem to me all that important: the meetings between government leaders and ministers should first and foremost be under the control of the national parliaments. What is important is that the EU officials who prepare these meetings have a duty only to meet with registered lobbyists. That should be logical, but would not put a stop to the mess: better a strong agreement between Commission and Parliament than the agreement full of holes we might get should the Council have to go along with it.

All things considered, I don't think that the permanent representatives need to be brought within the scope of the regulation, which would lead to endless legal pestering and wouldn't in any case put a stop to things. What’s needed here, rather, is for our national MPs to get to work. Our embassies are increasingly tasked with promoting the interests of big corporations. The least that you can expect from the Minister of Foreign Affairs is that this should be completely transparent. As things stand, our own permanent representatives in Brussels are only expected in a loose sense to say which lobbyists they have along to their offices. This should in my view be made a formal obligation and furthermore a list of these meetings should be posted on their website, so that everyone can see which interests our representatives, the Permanent Representatives of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, truly represent.