Lobbycracy

Over the last week an increasingly unclear and fraught picture of a major European lobbying scandal has been unfolding. “Dalligate” or “snusgate” has been heralded as “the biggest tobacco industry interference in public health policy at the European level”, and led to the unprecedented resignation – or maybe dismissal - of Maltese Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy, John Dalli. Given the Commission's normally relaxed attitude to industry lobbying, this was surprising. In fact, this is the first time a Commissioner has been removed over a lobby scandal. Unfortunately there's no reason to believe this is the start of a new, stricter approach. The Commission's messy handling of the case, characterised by improvisation rather than clear and transparent procedures, has raised more questions than it answers. The Commission must urgently end its secrecy around the Dalli case and publish all the facts from the OLAF investigation. Post-Dalligate, the Commission must finally accept the urgent need for far stricter transparency and ethics rules around its relations with lobbyists.

Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) submitted four complaints to the EU Transparency Register's secretariat, following an article published illustrating that the register is still incomplete and inconsistent.

Since the start of the eurocrisis, the European Commission has gained significant new powers to monitor and intervene in government budgets at a member-state level in the name of ‘economic governance’. But power must be accountable.

The bank fails to answer the allegations concerning President Draghi’s membership of lobby group, lobby watchdog says

The European Central Bank appears to be in denial, Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) said today, following the Bank’s formal response to the EU Ombudsman, following the complaint submitted by CEO regarding ECB President Mario Draghi’s membership of the Group of Thirty.