Ban overturned but lobbyists push for greater leniency

By Anna McLauchlin

Date: 22/09/05

Bowing to pressure from civil-rights groups, the European Parliament has lifted a ban on all lobbyists based outside the three cities housing the institutional headquarters. But lobbyists are still pushing for more lenient access rules.

The Parliament announced in April that it would cut the number of permanent access cards for one lobbying organisation from six to four. At the same time, pressure groups based outside the EU hubs of Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg would be barred from lobbying the institutions.

According to a Parliament official, the reason was twofold. Firstly the Parliament, having been very generous with badges in the past, wanted to clean up its accreditation criteria. In theory, there are 6,000-7,000 people accredited to the Parliament, but the official said that many were actually students or people from neighbouring buildings that did not need access to the building for work. Secondly, the Parliament's insurance policies imposed a limit on the number of people per square metre allowed in the building and there were worries this might be exceeded.

But after fierce opposition from national NGOs - particularly from the UK, via the EU civil rights group Act4Europe - the college of quaestors, the MEPs responsible for internal regulation, decided in July to ask the Parliament's security unit to scrap the restriction on those lobbyists based outside the institutional cities. The number of permanent access cards will still be reduced to four per organisation and will only be granted if the latter can prove that its staff need to enter the institutions more than 50 times per year. Infrequent visitors to the Parliament will be noted on a second list and should find access easier.

"It should be quicker for those who only need to come for a day to get access, without passing via the committee secretariat," said the Parliament official. "And for those organisations who need more than four cards, they will be allowed a one-off weekly pass."

"The European Parliament is supposed to be an open, representative body in the EU and this move goes completely against that," complained Dick Oosting of Amnesty International. Amnesty in Brussels has nine members of staff and two or more interns who need regular access to the Parliament.

"The outcome for us is that we will simply go less often to the Parliament," he said. "Where we would have sent an intern we will no longer do so."

John Hontelez, Act4Europe chairman, says those certain to visit the institution 50 times per year will be people using the restaurant and that lobbyists will therefore be the victims of the new rule: "More realistic is to put a minimum of 11, which means one visit per month," he said. Act4Europe still opposes the reduction to four passes per organisation, which Hontelez called a "bureaucratic barrier that does not help anyone".

At their next meeting, the quaestors will consider the organisation's request to make the passes non-nominative. The Parliament has promised to carry out a three-month evaluation of the impact of the changes and conclusions are expected next month.

Article reports on a review of the accreditation rules for lobbyists to the European Parliament. Pressure groups voiced their concerns against planned restrictions.