Kallas calls for MEPs to declare links with lobbyists

By Dana Spinant

Date: 14/04/05

Siim Kallas, the European commissioner for administration and the fight against fraud, is preparing to step up the regulation of lobbyists in Brussels.

He is urging MEPs to be more transparent in declaring their links with lobbyists, saying that they should match the standards set for European commissioners.

Kallas believes that those lobbying the EU should initially be regulated by a code of conduct but he is also countenancing legislation.

"I would first like to have a voluntary code of conduct, because having legislation could create all sorts of difficulty," he told European Voice.

More radical approaches would, he said, include legislative proposals establishing rules. "It will not be the first step," he said. "To start with, it would be difficult to define lobbying and lobbyists."

At the end of this month the Commission will discuss a communication on lobbying and a Green Paper on the sector will be launched before the end of the year. As part of the debate launched by the Green Paper, the Commission will organise a roundtable with stakeholders, to exchange views on the right approach to take. "We should then have something, a set of rules, a code of conduct, next year," Kallas said.

He said that the approach taken in the US of "heavy legislation", under which all lobbyists had to declare their finances, what they spent, for what, and on whom, was not his model. "I can easily imagine that there are ways to avoid such laws."

"I don't want to create a big bureaucracy to control lobbying, I will be careful. We will negotiate with the stakeholders to find the right approach. We need a good balance. Let's start with self-regulation. Afterwards, if it does not work, we will go for a different approach," he said.

The commissioner said that since lobbying had become such a big business in Brussels, with an impact on policymaking, more care should be taken of the sector.

"I have nothing against lobbying. As a former parliamentarian I know it is important to have alternative views on issues from different sides before adopting legislation. But the public must be informed: the issue is transparency," he said.

While the European Parliament has a register of accredited lobbyists, the other institutions do not.

But it was also a matter of personal integrity, he said, pointing to the sensitive issue of members of the European Parliament being linked to certain business or lobbying groups. "If we consider the practice for commissioners, we have to declare all interests, and those declarations are deeply scrutinised by journalists and MEPs. This must be a common rule across the Union. I just looked at MEPs' declarations of interest and I saw that some of them did not declare anything: they have to declare their income, their interests," he said.

Kallas urged greater transparency. "Some German MEPs have strong links with businesses," he said. "This should be first of all made clear and maybe also forbidden."

"Politics is not about money but about voices. Business is about money: they use different currencies. If you serve two goals, politics and business, you would lose your business."

European Commissioner for Administrative Affairs, Audit and Anti-Fraud, Siim Kallas, was outlining his plans on the regulation of lobbyists in Brussels, including the drafting of a code of conduct as a first step, rather than legislative regulation. Kallas called on MEPs to lay open their links to lobby groups.