US Companies Continue Big Spending on Lobbying on EU Digital Economy Issues
Google and Microsoft are among companies that dominated EU lobbying in 2015, said public interest group Transparency International (TI) in December. Last year saw heavy lobbying by the corporate sector on digital economy issues, with Digital Economy Commissioner Günther Oettinger having the most lobby contacts, it said. As lobbying in Brussels heats up, it's also becoming more transparent, TI and others said. The European Commission said it's readying a proposal to make the transparency register mandatory, and several members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are posting records of their meetings with lobbyists. Despite problems such as inaccurate registrations and the predominance of corporate lobbyists, 2016 could be the year when Europe sees major changes in transparency, TI EU Integrity Policy Officer Daniel Freund told us.
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The EC is "fully committed to enhanced transparency across all areas of its work," said a spokesman for First Vice President Frans Timmermans, who deals with better regulation, inter-institutional relations, the rule of law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights. On taking office, the current commission presented a transparency initiative for contacts between interest representatives and the commissioners, their cabinets and EC directors-general, he said.
EC lobby meetings in 2014 and information from the EU transparency register were linked for the first time in the Dec. 1 TI report, which is based on data from TI's EU Integrity Watch platform. The report said the EC held nearly 7,100 meetings, 75 percent of which were with companies and industry representatives. EC officials working on the digital economy had the highest number of lobby meetings (771), with Oettinger second among commissioners in the number of lobby contacts (180), the report said. Officials working on the digital single market met 451 times with lobbyists, it said.
TI's analysis found that the 10 most active Silicon Valley and Internet companies were Google, Microsoft, IBM, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Uber, eBay, Spotify and Hewlett-Packard. Microsoft reported a lobby budget of 4.5 million euros ($4.9 million), second only to ExxonMobil, TI said. Google's budget was 3.5 million euros, the same as for 2014 (see 1505290014). Huawei (3 million euros) and Telefonica (2 million euros) were also among the 20 highest-spending companies, it said. Orange's and Vodafone's budgets were each 1 million euros, Deutsche Telekom's 1.13 million, TI said. Apple and Nokia reported spending of 700,000 euros, Amazon 600,000. Four of the five most active companies in Brussels are American, said the report. Google had 56 high-level meetings with the EC, Microsoft 30, it said. Among civil society groups, the biggest spender was the European Consumers' Organisation, at 1.5 million euros, the report said.
The increased lobbying by big U.S. companies might be the result of current debates on the digital single market and antitrust cases pending against Google and other companies and the regulation of Uber and other services, Freund said in an interview. Lobbying expenditures on such issues likely won't dip this year, given the EC 2016 work program's focus on such things as copyright reform, a review of Europe's telecom regulatory framework and the free flow of data. TI's analysis said Oettinger's policy area is one where the "corporate bias is most extreme," Freund said.
Some lawmakers also want to boost transparency. MEP Julia Reda, of the Greens/European Free Alliance Group and Germany, publishes all her meetings with lobbyists and interest groups. Reda, who wrote a controversial report recommending changes to Europe's copyright system, reported many meetings last year on copyright, Internet governance and digital single market issues. Several other members of the Greens/EFA Group also make public their meetings with lobbyists.
Despite the increased openness, there are still problems with lobbying reporting, Freund said. TI has filed complaints against half of all the lobbyists in Brussels over the inaccurate information contained in their registrations, he said. The only big name on the watchdog's list was Cisco, which has since rectified its registration information, he said. By contrast, Microsoft's registration was particularly well done, he said. TI first went after the organizations whose lobby registrations were clearly wrong and hasn't gotten to the others on the register yet, he said. The EC has dealt with around 13 percent of the complaints so far, he said.
Another issue is that the register is voluntary, said Freund. The EC will propose an inter-institutional agreement to the Parliament and Council for a mandatory joint lobbying register for those seeking to influence policymaking in any of the three bodies, said Timmerman's spokesman. "The planned public consultation to prepare the proposal will be launched soon, to gather further stakeholder input." Negotiations with Parliament and Council will "start as soon as possible after the results have been analyzed," said the spokesman.
The past year has seen growing interest from companies and other interested parties in signing on to the transparency register, a law firm source said. Law firms, which have had concerns about what activities are and aren't included in lobbying, have now received more clarification and guidance and their clients are gradually registering, she said. Clients and businesses will become increasingly aware that registration is a given and that they must comply, she added.
Freund said he hopes the EC proposal will include substantial reform of lobbying in Brussels. TI wants reporting to be done in a standardized format so it can be analyzed across political groups and countries, he said. This year might bring about major changes in lobbying transparency, Freund said.