Söderman demands explanation for transatlantic business secrecy

Date: 25/07/02

THE European Ombudsman has told Enterprise Commissioner Erkki Liikanen that his team of officials was wrong to guard secret details of their dealings with a leading EU-US trade lobby.

In a draft ruling, Jacob Söderman has given the Commission until the end of October to explain why it needed to keep secret apparently innocuous details of two meetings between its staff and the high-level Transatlantic Business Dialogue (TABD) - a group of chief executive officers battling to remove trade barriers.

A Dutch NGO, Corporate Observatory Europe, complained to him after unsuccessfully requesting secret briefing notes it said were the 'only way to shed light effectively on the nature of the relationship between the Commission and the TABD'.

Söderman said he rejected the Commission's claims that there was 'no real public interest in disclosure'.

'It is not for the Commission to say which documents might or might not be useful to citizens in monitoring the Commission's exercise of its powers,' he said.

He also dismissed a Commission argument that leaking the briefings could harm international relations because US lawmakers might confuse the personal views of staff contained in the briefings with official policy.

Söderman said of the EU executive: 'It provides no evidence to show any likelihood that the US authorities would make such a mistake.'

The TABD is one of the main links between big business and policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic.

The group holds an annual CEO's conference to voice concerns over red tape and emerging trade issues.

Every year the body elects two chairs from major US and EU companies. Boeing CEO Philip Condit and BAE Systems Vice-Chairman Charles Masefield currently share the TABD hot seat.

Executives work all year round to prepare for these showcase events and monitor progress in dismantling trade barriers - liaising with their civil service counterparts in Washington and Brussels.

Liikanen's officials are the main EU policy link with the TABD.

His spokesman Per Haugaard said: 'Our goal is to comply with the transparency rules of the Commission in all matters. We will look at this ruling as soon as possible.'

The European Ombudsman has told Enterprise Commissioner Erkki Liikanen that his team of officials was wrong to guard secret details of their dealings with a leading EU-US trade lobby.