Draft code of conduct for lobbyists under attack

A draft code of conduct for lobbyists published this week by the European Commission has come under fire from transparency campaigners and lawyers.

The draft, published on Monday (10 December), requires lobbyists to follow the principles of "openness, transparency, honesty and integrity". Lobbyists should follow six core rules which include identifying themselves, declaring their clients and providing accurate information to EU institutions. They should not obtain information dishonestly or induce officials to breach internal staff rules. When employing former officials, they should abide by their institutions’ rules and confidentiality requirements. Anyone breaching the code would be suspended from a register of lobbyists.

But Paul de Clerck of Friends of the Earth Europe, a member of the steering board of the pro-transparency campaign group ALTER-EU, said: "It’s disappointing that it’s taken the Commission six months to come up with something that is weaker than what is in lobbyists’ own codes."

De Clerck said that the draft code failed to mention specifically avoiding conflict of interest and not offering financial inducements as core rules. Instead, the code only makes indirect reference to existing rules for the staff of EU institutions.

De Clerck said that ALTER-EU regretted that the Commission had not included a specific reference to ending the practice of revolving doors. "Lobby firms should not employ lobbyists coming straight from the Commission," he said.

The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE), which represents lawyers across the EU, said that the definition of activities by lawyers which should be exempted from the code was "far too narrow". CCBE said that lawyers should be exempt from the code when they are giving legal advice related to political and decision-making processes in the EU and when they are responding to requests from EU institutions.

The heads of the two main professional lobbyists organisations, SEAP and EPACA, reacted positively to the Commission’s draft. EPACA’s chairman José Lalloum said: "All six articles are in EPACA’s code." SEAP President Lyn Trytsman-Gray said that the Commission’s draft code was "very compatible with SEAP’s code".

A draft code of conduct for lobbyists published this week by the European Commission has come under fire from transparency campaigners and lawyers.