EU’s voluntary-lobbyist-registration policy belies its calls for transparency | EurActiv

EU’s voluntary-lobbyist-registration policy belies its calls for transparency | EurActiv

 In Brussels, lobbyists who try to influence EU policy are not required
to register their position officially – and so while "more than 6,600
organisations representing an astounding 30,000 individual lobbyists
have registered voluntarily", "thousands more have failed to [and] those
hiding in the shadows include most of the high-powered law firms trying
to influence EU policy"

 

Developed countries often lecture states in the developing world
about transparency. So it seems the height of hypocrisy that the
European Union is not requiring lobbyists to register, writes Giorgi
Meladze.

Giorgi Meladze is the director of the Ilia State University
Center for Constitutional Studies and the executive director of the
Liberty Institute,  a libertarian think-tank in Tbilisi, Georgia. He is
also the founder and editor of LobbyingAlert.com, a blog analyzing
lobbying issues.

Rather than making registration mandatory, as a top EU leader pledged
just weeks ago, it is allowing voluntary registration of those seeking
to influence policy.