Lobbyists can go under the radar

The lobbyist register of the European Parliament, the European Commission and the European Council has significant gaps and risks becoming a paper tiger, claim the auditors of the EU Court of Auditors who have reviewed the register.

This means that lobbying, according to a press release from the Court of Auditors, can still be hidden, “go under the radar”.

“A number of different lobbying contacts can take place outside the public light, which reduces transparency and affects public trust,” emphasizes Jorg Kristijan Petrovič, the member of the Court of Auditors who led the audit.

Unlike, for example, the Swedish Riksdag, the largest EU bodies have, for some years now, required lobbyists to register. The bodies have joined what is known as the transparency register.

The aim is for the media, the public and others to be able to find out who has tried to influence proposals and met EU leaders, members of the EU Parliament and senior managers.

But the Court of Auditors sees several shortcomings. What the auditors call spontaneous meetings do not need to be recorded and EU employees below the highest management level are not covered by the rules, which the bodies can interpret as little as they like. The lobbyists do not have to report contacts with anyone other than managers and politicians and they do not have to report telephone contacts and emails, regardless of who they communicated with.