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2019 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

1. Lobbying in Europe: Professionals, Politicians, and Institutions Under General Suspicion?

Authors : Doris Dialer, Margarethe Richter

Published in: Lobbying in the European Union

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

Interest representatives, also called lobbyists, try to influence European decision-makers by offering external expertise and inside knowledge on stakeholder views. Although lobbying is a normal part of modern pluralistic democracy, it includes at the same time some controversial aspects, such as risks of conflicts of interests and lack of transparency. Due to a number of recent scandals and revolving door cases, demands for more accountability of political actors toward EU citizens have increased. Thus, issues such as ethical standards, codes of conduct, and the chances for a mandatory transparency register are addressed in this introductory chapter. In addition, actual lobbying trends as well as post-Brexit lobbying scenarios are discussed.

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Trilogues are informal tripartite meetings behind closed doors in the framework of the ordinary legislative procedure attended by representatives of the European Parliament (EP), the Council, and the Commission (COM). The purpose is to get an agreement on amendments to a COM proposal acceptable to Council and the EP.

Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation).

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) is the voice and also the representative of organized civil society in Europe. The EESC has traditionally considered the social partners to be CSOs (Dialer, 2017).

LobbyFacts is a joint project of Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) and LobbyControl. It collates information from two official sources. Firstly, data is from the EU’s Transparency Register (TR) and secondly from the Commission’s website on high-level lobby meetings of Commissioners, their cabinet members, and Directors General.

On 22 May 2018, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with the leaders of the EP’s political groups and the Chair and the Rapporteur of the LIBE Committee in the EP in Brussels to discuss data protection issues. He apologized to European users for the data breach, admitted they were slow to identify Russian interference, but also highlighted the jobs and investment Facebook is bringing to Europe. The 90-minute live-streamed meeting, which came in the same week that the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation entered into force, triggered much attention but also criticism on behalf of some members and media.

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These are the definition of lobbyist, individual registration, individual spending disclosure, employer spending disclosure, electronic filing, public access (to a registry of lobbyists), revolving door provisions (with a particular focus on “cooling-off periods”), and enforcement.

A group of 24 NGOs wrote to the EP’s Committees on Agriculture (AGRI) and Environment (ENVI) to even extend the ban on Monsanto lobbyists to “all those seeking to lobby MEPs on behalf of Monsanto,” including trade associations like the European Crop Protection Association (ECPA) (Politico EU 2017, 4).

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The public consultation received more than 1800 contributions. 98.5% of respondents considered that action to tackle SUP marine litter is “necessary,” and 95% consider it “necessary and urgent.” More than 70% of manufacturers and more than 80% of brands and recyclers considered action “necessary and urgent” (European Commission 2018, 9).

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Title: Lobbying in Europe: Professionals, Politicians, and Institutions Under General Suspicion?
Authors: Doris Dialer
Margarethe Richter
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: Lobbying in the European Union
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-98799-6

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-98800-9

Copyright Year: 2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98800-9_1

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