European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. Olivier Gouallec/Demotix. All rights reserved.Ten years ago in the summer of 2005 a group of NGOs came together to form the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU). Back then, the EU's transparency register did not exist and the secrecy around lobbying in Brussels was shocking.
If you were to ask one of the many large consultancy firms in the EU quarter at the time which multinational companies they were lobbying for, they would simply refuse to answer. They were able to argue that they had promised their clients confidentiality and that they had no obligation to be transparent.
Today most lobby consultancies are registered. They disclose at least some basic information about their clients and also an indication of how much they spend on lobbying. Whilst progress has been made, genuine transparency or adequate regulations to prevent conflicts of interest, undue influence and the capture of decision-making by narrow economic interests are all still far from being achieved.
