GMW: Lighting the murky world of the corporate lobbyists

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GMW: Lighting the murky world of the corporate lobbyists

" GM WATCH " <info

Mon, 6 Jun 2005 20:55:03 +0100

 

 

 

 

GM WATCH daily

http://www.gmwatch.org

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In a speech back in March EU Commissioner Siim Kallas inaugurated the

'European Transparency Initiative' with the aim of casting light on the

EU lobbying industry. The industry has since mobilised in order to

defeat the plans for regulation and to maintain its secrecy.

 

An insight into this subterranean world was provided by a recent

interview with Brussels lobbying veteran, Daniel Gueguen Rogier, who

heads an

institute which trains many of the lobbyists. In the interview he

predicted that the industry " will tend to adopt ever tougher lobbying

strategies and ever more sophisticated approaches to economic

intelligence

that will probably involve practices such as manipulation,

destabilization or disinformation. "

 

Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) has done a particularly brilliant

job of publicising the activities of the Brussels lobbyists and

forwarding the need for transparency.

http://www.corporateeurope.org/

 

Below we have a lengthy extract from a fascinating article drawing on

CEO's research into the murky world of corporate lobbying in Brussels.

Although the article illuminatingly covers the whole terrain, here are a

few bits of particular interest in terms of the GM debate:

 

" A review of the career of Burson-Marsteller's Brussels office head,

David Earnshaw, shows the interconnections between the lobbyists,

industry, NGOs (some of which are big businesses in their own right),

and the

EU. He had previously been in Oxfam's Brussels office and before that

had driven the industry lobby campaign for the EU's Patents on Life

Directive.

 

Another powerful group has been the biotech lobby, including the

European Seeds Association (ESA) and EuropaBio, an umbrella group of the

entire sector. Four of the world's largest agribusiness and biotech

concerns - Monsant, Syngenta, Pioneer (Du Pont) and Bayer - are

members of

both groups and also have their own offices [in Brussels].

 

ESA wants the EU Seeds Directive, which determines the labeling

requirements and limits for genetically modified (GM) seeds, watered

down.

Initially very successful in getting the policies it wanted, the biotech

industry has faced a consumer backlash and national governments have

stalled any new products. Now the industry, after bitter and expensive

campaigns against environmental groups, has developed several

important EU

proposals on " coexistence " between GM and conventional and organic

agriculture, and the Seeds Directive, which will establish the thresholds

above which labeling is required for GM seeds. "

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European Union: political lobbyists oppose disclosure

By Jean Shaoul

http://www.asiantribune.com/show_article.php?id=2454

 

....The Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), an Amsterdam-based research

and campaign group, has written a fascinating guide - in the style of

the Lonely Planet series - to the world of corporate lobbying in the

Quartier Leopold, the four square kilometres that is the EU quarter in

Brussels called Brussels the EU quarter. It is a world that remains

virtually unknown to the general public.

 

EU - a fertile breeding ground for lobbyists

 

Since the 1990s, the whole area has been substantially rebuilt for the

EU bureaucrats and their entourage of lobbyists, consultants and

political powerbrokers. More than 85,000 people work there. Only

15,000 live

in this once residential area and most of these are well-heeled

Eurocrats.

 

The reason is that the complex decision-making structures of the EU,

designed to keep out the general public, provide a fertile breeding

ground for corporate lobbyists.

 

With more than 1,000 lobby groups plus hundreds of public relations,

financial services and law firms offering lobbying services, dozens of

corporate-funded think tanks as well as hundreds of corporate " EU

affairs " offices, Brussels now competes with Washington for the title of

lobbying capital of the world.

 

According to the CEO, 70 percent of the 15,000 lobbyists represent big

business. Every conceivable industry or sector has a lobby group.

Twenty percent represent NGOs, including trade unions, public health

organisers, environmental groups, etc. Ten percent represent the

interests of

regions, cities and international institutions.

 

Just one of the largest groups, Hill & Knowlton, may employ more than

all those employed by the social and environmental groups that have a

presence in Brussels. They act as lobbyists for hire for whoever can

afford them - trade associations and large corporations.

 

Their prime target is the EU Commission, because only the Commission

can propose and develop new legislation for the European parliament.

Another key target is the Council of Ministers, which has the final say -

behind closed doors - over the proposals made by the Commission, with 90

percent of decisions taken by the Committee of Permanent

Representatives, made up of the member states' ambassadors to the EU,

before the

ministers even meet.

 

More recently, as the European parliament's powers have increased, it

too has become a focus for the lobbyists. So much so that in March 2004,

the Society of European Affairs Professionals (SEAP) complained in a

letter to the president of the European parliament that there were not

enough seats and headphones for the lobbyists. There are nearly 5,000

accredited lobbyists who have full time access passes to the parliament

buildings. While the official seat is Strasbourg, there are huge

parliamentary buildings in Brussels too.

 

The whole parliamentary process has become so dependent upon lobbying

for drafting the resolutions and amendments that Chris Davies, a Liberal

Democrat MEP, explained at a training course for lobbyists, " I need

lobbyists. I depend upon lobbyists. " Some idea of the debased nature of

the whole political culture may be gleaned from the CEO report's account

of Davies' talk: " Due to the work pressure and complexity of issues on

the agenda of the European parliament, Davies explained, he was eager

to receive specific amendments from industry on proposed legislation.

Davies submits these amendments for voting in the European Parliament and

many become EU law. "

 

The " revolving career door " is a common phenomenon; as MEPs and

Eurocrats go on to take up lucrative posts in the Brussels lobbying

industry.

Perhaps the most notorious example is the UK's Sir Leon Brittan, the

former Trade Commissioner. He went on to become consultant on World Trade

Organisation issues at the Herbert Smith law firm, the vice chairman of

the investment bank UBS Warburg, advisory director at Unilever, and

chairman of the LOTIS Committee of International Financial Services

London

(IFSL), a lobby group representing the UK financial industry.

 

According to the CEO, another example is the UK's Liberal Democrat MEP,

Nick Clegg, who joined the Brussels PR and lobbying firm GPlus Europe

last year. It also said that when Labour MEP David Bowe lost his seat in

June 2004, he announced in the European Voice that he was looking for a

job in consultancy. " All offers will be considered, " he wrote. The

lobbyists

 

The CEO cites a number of the lobbying strategies that the firm Kimmons

& Kimmons outlined in one of its training courses. It makes interesting

reading: " The gunship " is aggressive lobbying, including threats of

relocation if policy proposals are not dropped, and is only to be used if

other tactics do not work. " The Kofi Annan, " also known as " the Trojan

Horse, " or constructive engagement, means offering governments a

mutually acceptable compromise. " The good cop-bad cop " where one

company or

group takes a hard line approach and another makes a " constructive

compromise " solution.

 

" The dentist, " whereby a company or group that dislikes some

legislation will try to " pull out the worst teeth " first and come back

for the

rest later.

 

" The third party " means working with NGOs and trade unions to find a

compromise on a disputed issue.

 

" The donkey " is a combination of stick and carrot strategies to win

over key decision makers. Since the firm claimed that such strategies

" usually " stopped short of seduction and bribery, it can safely be

assumed

that these were frequently used.

 

One of the largest industry associations is UNICE, the European

employers' federation. Not surprisingly, it favors a " flexible " labor

market

within an internal market as free as possible from all physical,

technical, fiscal and social " distortions. "

 

UNICE produces detailed analyses and commentaries on virtually every

policy emanating from Brussels. It does not just lobby in Brussels, but

through its members' national federations it also lobbies the 25

European national governments. It has demanded a moratorium on any new

social

initiatives until the EU had become the world's most " competitive "

economy.

 

According to CEO, UNICE chose its offices because they were located

directly opposite the Commission's Directorate General for the Internal

Market, which is fiercely pro-business. Until last autumn, it was run by

Fritz Bolkestein, who had sought through the Directive on Services of

General Economic Interest, known as the Bolkestein Directive, to

liberalize and open up public services to the corporations. While the

directive has been sent back for revision, due to widespread popular

opposition, his successor is unlikely to do anything other than tinker

with it.

 

UNICE, with the European Round Table of Industrialists, took the lead

in campaigning to make " competitiveness " the EU's primary goal, a goal

that it achieved in March 2000 with the Lisbon Agenda that adopted

competitiveness as the EU's central aim to which all other policy

areas must

be subordinated.

 

To this end, UNICE demanded and got the EU to introduce in spring 2004

business impact assessments for all existing and new EU policies. This

means, following the UK's example, that it will be impossible to

introduce any legislation or policies that impose costs on business that

outweighed the benefits.

 

Jose Manuel Barrosa has announced that the Lisbon Agenda will be his

top priority during his presidency of the Commission.

 

All the largest multinationals and industries have offices in the

Quartier Leopold. Boeing and Airbus both have their EU affairs office in

Rond-Point Schuman, ideal for nipping into the European Commission and

European Council to further their claims for global dominance of the

airline industry. The chemical industry has been one of the most

vociferous

lobbyists, mounting perhaps one of the most scandalous lobbying

campaigns in EU history. Up to 99 percent of all chemicals sold in the

EU have

not passed any official environmental or health scrutiny.

 

According to the CEO, the German chemical giant, BASF, which has its

lobbying office in Brussels, took over the leadership in the chemical

industry association, CEFIC. CEFIC, with the support of the Bush

administration, mounted a campaign against the EU's attempts via its

Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals (REACH) to

regulate toxic

chemicals. It spent millions of euros lobbying and campaigning in the

media to delay and weaken the proposal. Under BASF's leadership, CEFIC

argued that REACH would affect " competitiveness " and hinder the EU's

Lisbon Agenda goal of becoming the world's most competitive economy by

2010. Industry-funded consultants' studies presented wildly exaggerated

estimates of the likely costs to industry and the job losses that would

follow from REACH. The chemical industry soon had the UK, German and

French governments on its side and got REACH's proposals significantly

watered down.

 

The CEO also discusses the activities of one lobbying firm,

Burson-Marsteller, which has offices on Avenue de Cortenburgh. One of

the most

controversial PR firms in the world, whose recent clients have included

Ahmad Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress, the Burmese dictatorship and the

Saudi royal family, it employs 45 people, some of whom run " front

groups " on behalf of corporate clients.

 

One of these is the Bromine Science and Environmental Forum (BSEF), a

corporate front group created by Burson-Marsteller for the world's four

largest bromine producers - US, Israeli and Japanese chemical

corporations - which oppose a ban on bromine, a fire retardant with

serious

health and environmental side effects. They hired Burson-Marsteller when

several European countries started preparing to regulate bromine fire

retardant (BFR) use and consider an EU wide ban on some of their products.

 

The BSEF sponsored research that argued bromines helped the environment

by reducing fires and therefore pollution. In May 2003, its lawyers

wrote to the media and warned them that " ... [our clients] will not

hesitate to pursue all remedies available to them should there be any

incorrect or inaccurate statements in relation to BFRs that adversely

affect

our clients' business. " Last year, the EU overturned a ban on one kind

of bromines.

 

A review of the career of Burson-Marsteller's Brussels office head,

David Earnshaw, shows the interconnections between the lobbyists,

industry, NGOs (some of which are big businesses in their own right),

and the

EU. He had previously been in Oxfam's Brussels office and before that

had driven the industry lobby campaign for the EU's Patents on Life

Directive.

 

Another powerful group has been the biotech lobby, including the

European Seeds Association (ESA) and EuropaBio, an umbrella group of the

entire sector. Four of the world's largest agribusiness and biotech

concerns - Monsant, Syngenta, Pioneer (Du Pont) and Bayer - are

members of

both groups and also have their own offices.

 

ESA wants the EU Seeds Directive, which determines the labeling

requirements and limits for genetically modified (GM) seeds, watered

down.

Initially very successful in getting the policies it wanted, the biotech

industry has faced a consumer backlash and national governments have

stalled any new products. Now the industry, after bitter and expensive

campaigns against environmental groups, has developed several

important EU

proposals on " coexistence " between GM and conventional and organic

agriculture, and the Seeds Directive, which will establish the thresholds

above which labeling is required for GM seeds.

 

As well as trade associations, there are also corporate think tanks.

One of the highest profile think tanks that have set up shop in Brussels

is the European Policy Centre. Funded by industry, it provides the

media with the " instant expert " ready to comment on the latest

developments

in the EU.

 

Another is the well-funded Centre for the New Europe (CNE), modeled on

the US's aggressively right-wing Heritage Foundation and the

Competitive Enterprise Institute. Fanatically pro-market, its aim is

to privatize

everything. It attacks EU environmental policies, which it claims are

based on " junk science. "

 

TechCentralStation, a right-wing think tank, runs a web site (www.

techcentrastation.be), funded by Microsoft, Exxon and McDonalds, which

features articles written by US and European hard-line right wingers

denouncing any progressive legislation under discussion.

 

Whereas once such organisations were seen as fringe outfits, they are

increasingly becoming part of the mainstream. For example,

TechCentralStation co-organises conferences with the Christian Democrat

parliamentary group in the European parliament.

 

Others corporate think tanks include Friends of Europe, Forum Europe

and the New Defence Agenda.

 

The New Defence Agenda (NDA) is part of Brussels' growing

military-industrial complex. Set up in 2003, it is funded by arms

producers Lockheed

Martin and BAE Systems in order to promote higher European military

spending. Others arms industry lobby groups include the European

Association of Aerospace Industries (AECMA) and the European Defence

Industries

Group (EDIG).

 

The arms industry is also using the Lisbon Agenda and competitiveness

to argue their case for increasing the EU's current defence spending of

about 3 percent of GDP to the US level of 6 percent.

 

The lobbyists' response Commissioner Kallas' timorous announcement on

seeking disclosure by lobbyists - as he said, all his suggestions were

open to discussion - has provoked furious opposition from the very

groups that the Transparency Initiative attempts to rein in. In

opposition

to this proposal, they call for self-regulation, voluntary codes of

conduct and " corporate social responsibility. "

 

A UNICE spokesperson commented: " Proposals that aim for more regulation

are nonsense. "

 

Rogier Chorus of the Society of European Affairs Practitioners (SEAP),

a trade association of 150 lobbyists created to prevent any form of

regulation on lobbying, said he was " a bit puzzled " by the move since

SEAP

had launched a voluntary code of ethical practice for lobbyists. He

said, " wouldn't accept that [disclosure register] at this stage. " "

 

He arrogantly called for the Commission to " do its homework " and

accused it of corruption, saying it should clean its own house first by

making " officials less vulnerable to bribes. "

 

Standing reality on its head, he said that mandatory lobbying

disclosure would make it harder for smaller interest groups to make

themselves

heard. The fact that " smaller interest groups, " such as ordinary working

people, could not afford the lobbyists' fat fees seemed to have passed

him by.

 

SEAP's members are required to follow a course at the European Training

Institute on its code of conduct. Some idea of what such training

consists can be gleaned from an interview with ETI's chief Daniel

Gueguer.

According to the CEO, Gueguer predicted ever more aggressive lobbying

tactics. He said in a recent interview that " in the future.... we will

tend to adopt ever tougher lobbying strategies and ever more

sophisticated approaches to economic intelligence that will probably

involve

practices such as manipulation, destabilization or disinformation. "

 

 

 

 

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