Demand 11: CURB EXCESSIVE CORPORATE LOBBYING POWER
Some 15,000 lobbyists are active in Brussels, of whom a majority represents corporate interests. With regards to EU trade policy the dominance of corporate lobbyists is even more prominent, writes the S2B-network:

At the moment, there are no binding transparency and ethics rules for lobbying at the EU institutions. This leads to a political and democratic deficit of EU trade policy.

In the recent past, DG Trade has granted privileged access and undue influence to corporate lobby groups, including the European Services Forum (ESF) and the Transatlantic Business Dialogue (TABD). This needs to be curbed.

Demand 11

We call upon the EU Member States to support the ‘European Transparency Initiative’, launched in March 2005 by European Commissioner Siim Kallas, in particular the objective to address the current lack of mandatory regulation on registration and reporting of lobby activities directed at EU institutions. Such rules must be shaped in a way that optimally enables democratic scrutiny of corporate influence over EU policy-making. Furthermore privileged relationships to big business should be ended to ensure that EU policies serve the interests of the general public, not the narrow commercial agendas of large corporations.

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