LOBBYING DEFINITION “A LA EU”

In September 2016, the European Commission launched a proposal for a so-called ‘mandatory’ lobby transparency register. According to the European Commission the new Agreement streamlines the broad definition of activities covered by the Register which is one of the main strengths of the current EU system compared to many national lobbying regulation regimes.

The new EC proposal states that “This agreement applies to activities which promote certain interests by interacting with any of the three signatory institutions, their members or officials, with the objective of influencing the formulation or implementation of policy or legislation, or the decision-making process within these institutions". This is very different from the current definition which is "all activities ... carried out with the objective of directly or indirectly influencing the formulation or implementation of policy and the decision-making processes of the EU institutions…"

The difference between the two is the removal of indirect lobbying from the definition and this is crucial for several reasons. Lobbying is not just direct contacts between lobbyists and officials (phone calls, letters, emails, meetings and the like), it is also indirect work to influence the views of the institutions and their officials: producing research to influence politicians, media campaigns, events and others. If the new definition only includes direct interactions, lobbyists conducting research, media campaigns, or holding events etc. which are aimed at influencing the policy-making decision process, but which are not in the form of direct interactions with policy-makers, would not need to declare the cost of those activities or the staff who work for them.

And for lobby consultancies and law firms, the change could be even more substantial. Lobby firms earn their fees by advising on lobbying and their clients pay for information on the who, why, how, when and where which make up a lobby strategy. Lobby firms do sometimes hold “interactions” or meetings with officials and others on behalf of clients, but much of their revenue is likely to be for strategy planning and advice. Under the new definition, a lot of lobby consultancies’ main activities will no longer require declaring via the register.