Dispelling suspicion

Siim Kallas, the European commissioner for administrative affairs and anti-fraud, is confident that his initiative to boost transparency on the Brussels lobbying scene will be a success.

Kallas’s optimism comes despite threats from corporate lobbyists that they would refuse to sign up to his planned registers and criticism from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that the Commission’s approach was too soft.

"I’m convinced a substantial part of interest groups will join. When it was adopted in the Commission I didn’t have such clear convictions," he said in an interview with European Voice.

One major boost for Kallas’ campaign, which was launched in 2005, has been a recent declaration of support for the initiative and its disclosure requirements from eight of Germany’s biggest business associations, including the German Industry Association (BDA) and the German Employers’ Federation (BDA). "If the Germans are coming and joining the register this is a big step," he said.

Kallas’s plans for a voluntary scheme, including a register and a common code of conduct for all interest groups and financial disclosure, have come under fire from corporate lobbyists who claim that they would be an unnecessary burden on firms, given the differences between the lobbying worlds on either side of the Atlantic.

Under the slogan "money doesn’t buy influence", the corporate lobbying community argues that US-style disclosure rules are unnecessary as political groups or campaigns do not directly receive funds from interest groups. But Kallas defended his insistence on lobbyists being clear about whom they work for and how much of their income comes from particular clients. "The process is very different in the US but the substance is the same. There are no political action committees but we and the US want to know the financial background of lobbyists," he said.

Waving aside arguments from the EU lobbying industry that there is no need for tightening up the rules because there has not been a major problem so far, Kallas insisted that it was better to act now before a major crisis undermines confidence in the EU and its decision-making procedures. Referring to the scandal around infamous lobbyist Jack Abramoff in the US, he said: "We don’t have an Abramoff scandal but you could imagine a scandal which involves interest representation groups who are acting improperly can easily emerge. Why wait for a scandal to emerge and then react?"

He pointed out that, in any case, complying with the Commission’s proposed system would be much less onerous than the strict financial reporting requirements in the US. "Their regulations are much more detailed. We are much more flexible," he said. The Commission is asking for lobbyists to list their main clients and their relative share of their overall income.

Asked about criticism that the Commission is being too vague in laying down how firms should calculate how much money is being spent on lobbying, Kallas replied with some amusement that the lobbyists’ attitude seems to be "don’t trust us, force us".

"If you want us to produce an accounting manual, we can do it but it would be cumbersome," he said, adding that it would probably be part of a compulsory scheme, which lobbyists want to avoid at all costs. Instead, he said that the Commission and lobbying groups should share a common goal of creating a credible system, adding that he was still very much attached to a "voluntary, compromise consensus-based system".

He rejected suggestions that the Commission would deny lobbyists access if they do not join the register, due to be launched next spring, saying that there was a democratic principle that all opinions are taken into account. Instead, he predicted that there would be effective peer pressure to join up. "It will be a problem for those who don’t join," he said. "If you are approached [by an organisation] you want to know who is behind them. If people say they can’t join the register you want to know why," he said.

Further parts of Kallas’s transparency initiative are yet to come, including an attempt to identify minimum standards on public life to apply to commissioners, senior officials and possibly MEPs.

Kallas said that his intention since the start of the initiative in 2005 had been to "dispel the environment of suspicion" around the lobbying process. While there is no certainty that his approach will be an uncontested success, it looks like going some way to shed light on the lobbying industry. He said: "If we didn’t have opposition, it means you are proposing something which doesn’t change anything."

Siim Kallas, the European commissioner for administrative affairs and anti-fraud, is confident that his initiative to boost transparency on the Brussels lobbying scene will be a success.