RECONCILING THE NUMBER OF BRUSSELS-BASED LOBBYISTS

Figuring out the number of Brussels-based lobbyists is indeed difficult. Taking the European Parliament as a first step, you have to go the European Parliament website (www.europarl.europa.eu), then click on Parliament, then click on In Detail, scroll down on the left-hand side column and you will see Accredited Lobbyists. You can search either by organisation or by name. You will see that there are currently 1,789 organisations that are registered and 2,821 individuals holding a Long-Term Access Pass. Now, turning to the European Commission, you have to go the Register of Interest Representatives website (https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/transparency/regrin/welcome.do?locale=en# )   and if you click on Statistics for Register, you will see that on 8 April 2001, there are 3,801 interest representatives (meaning organisations) registered broken down as follows: 242 consultancies/law firms/Independent PA Consultancies/other (similar) organisations 1, 802 companies/professional associations/trade unions/other other (similar) organisations 1, 216 Non-government organisations/think tanks/ other (similar) organisations 541 academic organisations/association of academic organisations/representatives of religion, chuches and communities of conviction/association of of public authorities/other (similar) organisations. What does this tell us??? Well, first it shows that there is a huge difference (2,012) between all the organisations appearing in the Register of Interest Representatives of the European Commission (3,801) and those that are registered in the European Parliament (1,789). The European Commission Register does not provide the names of individual lobbyists and it is therefore impossible to compare it with the number of individuals holding a long-term access pass to the European Parliament (2,821) Based on the above the only figure that we have at present as to the number of Brussels-based lobbyists is the figure of 2,821 since it is assumed that anyone trying to influence the EU decision-making process would certainly include the European Parliament. But again, this figure should be treated carefully as not all individuals who are holding a long-term access pass to the European Parliament are necessarily lobbyists e.g. trainees, researchers, students etc.. Let us discount the figure of 2,821 therefore by say 30% and we reach a number of Brussels-based lobbyists of more or less 2,000. Out of this number, about 500 are individuals working for public affairs consultancies/law firms and the like, 700 for companies, professional and trade associations, trade unions, 500 for NGOs/think tanks and the rest for other organisations (academia, public authorities, churches etc.)