For better supervision of lobbying in Europe

"European countries and EU institutions must adopt strong rules on lobbying. Otherwise, it is democracy that their is fragile."

In the report published today, Transparency International (TI) called the European countries and the European institutions to better manage the "lobbying" - or interest representation.

For the German NGO specialized in the fight against corruption, the lack of regulation strengthens the opacity in the public decision-making process. And this can hinder the democratic functioning by feeding a distrust of citizens towards elected officials and institutions.

"Abusive and opaque lobbying practices constitute a risk of corruption for Europe, said the Vice President of the NGO, Elena Panfilova. "European countries and EU institutions must adopt strong rules covering all sectors of activity in which lobbyists operate directly or indirectly. Otherwise, it is democracy that their is weakened. "

Special interest vs. public interest

At local, national and European level, lobbyists are working hard to bring to decision makers, information elements that may contribute to decision making. It is also necessary that policy makers can consult all stakeholders have the time and means to do so. What is often lacking. And this opens

A situation that just benefit the lobbyists.

These "lobbyists" within multinational companies, NGOs, professional federations, consulting firms ... Their strength is to control legislation (local, national, European) and communication tools. The risk, pointed out by Transparency International, is that in the decision process (local, national, European), the adoption of laws, the special interests outweigh the public interest.

The survey by Transparency International covers 19 European countries and 3 European institutions (Parliament, Commission, EU Council).

Based on the data collected (scale of 0 to 100), TI has established a ranking of countries according to the rules of lobbying supervision and transparency of public life.

(See map below)

Slovenia made notable progress with a score of 55%.

Conversely, Cyprus Hungary are the worst-ranked countries (14%).

France is in mid-table (27%).

This note corresponds to that already allocated in a report published last October, entitled "Transparency and Integrity of lobbying, a democratic challenge"

> See the report .