The Brussels Business Page #6

---

the Sheraton, 500m away.

And I'm not been allowed to

go out of the hotel because ...

... there was one protester blocking

the door by laying on the ground.

And it was the police

officer beside him ...

... I asked him, 'Can

I go outside please?'

'I'd like to go

and do my job.'

I was going to assist to the

launch Seattle round, ...

... so that we will enter into

a new phase negotiations ...

... for liberalization

of services.

I remember that the commissioner

Lamy was on the way to his car, ...

... but the car

couldnt move.

Because those people

there ... is just there.

And a policeman said to them,

'Please go away 5m ...'

' ... so that the high VIP

here can do their job.'

There are many NGOs saying that

ESF is super secret organization ...

... at the secret meeting with

the European Commission.

Although everything

is on my website.

I mean, I am

doing my job ...

... by contacting Commission

officials responsible for my file.

If anybody else would

like to do same, ...

... their phone number

is on their website.

I'm just doing my job and I dont

have anything speciffic, but ...

... if the Commission has

some relations with ESF ...

... it is because the

Commission is ...

... willing to get some information

from the services sectors ...

... before negotiating on their behalf.

Because this what we talking about.

Trade is done by

companies, not by NGO's.

This is the annual dinner

of the 'Friends of Europe' ...

... which is really a very

big Brussels organization.

Lots and lots of people

from different countries, ...

... different jobs,

different walks of life, ...

... are all interested in ...

... how can

Europe develop?

How can we pull right

the things that are wrong?

How can we build on

what we've already done?

I will call it a Think tank.

Think tanks in Brussels are

filling a part of vacuum ...

... that exists at EU level, that there

is no European public debates.

So Think tanks step in

to that vacuum and ...

... they are forums in which

something like a debate happens ...

... inside the

Brussels bubble.

There are national politicians,

there are European politicians, ...

... there are Civil service and draeded

bureaucrats are here, diplomats, ...

... businessman, there are professors

from universities, all sorts of people.

One thing about Brussels.

It's a bit like a village.

Everybody talks

to one another.

When I worked to the ERT, ...

... part of my job was

to keep in contact.

Think tanks are not

themselves lobbyists, ...

... but they are part of the

landscape of lobbying because ...

... companies use them to transmit

their demands and their perspectives.

And all of these are heavily

depended on industry funding.

Several people sponsor it.

Microsoft is one of them.

American business is present in

Europe. Microsoft is one of them, ...

... why not?

You have had Think

tanks in Brussels ...

... that were directly funded

by the oil industry ...

... and to working

to resolve ...

... whether there is such

thing as climate change ...

... and whether it's important

for governments to act ...

... to reduce the

CO2 emissions.

You can setup research institute

to provide you with the ...

... research that would

strengthened your position.

You can alunch massive

PR campaigns and ...

... flood the media

with your information.

What also happens is

seting up fake NGO's ...

... as happened in big battle

about self repentance law.

Suddenly the word is advertisment

from the NGOs that ...

... said it was representing small

and medium set companies, ...

... but financial backers of these

NGOs are Microsoft and SFE.

In the end it's

all about money.

In Democracy it's one

person - one vote, but ...

... in Brussels business

is 1 euro - 1 vote.

The problem is that we dont know

about the money behind the politics.

We dont know how much

was spent on lobbying ...

... by whom and

on which issues.

We need to get this

under democratic control.

It has to be made visible what role is

of lobbying in the EU decision-making.

What is the role of large

companies like Monsanto or Shell?

And what is the role of

foreign governments ...

... like the Chinesse or Russian

in making decisions in Brussels?

We actually have had a Lobby

Disclosure law in the US.

Although most people do not

know this, since World War II.

President Franklin

Delano Roosevelt ...

... was worried that Adolf Hitler

was trying to lobby Congress ...

... to prevent the US from

entering World War II.

Todays threat to our

national security ...

... is not a matter of

military weapons alone.

We know of new

methods of attack.

The Trojan horse,

the fifth column.

And as a result, he passed

this Lobby Disclosure law ...

... that said quite simply, if

your primary purpose is to ...

... influence legislation

on Capitol Hill, ...

... then you have to register

and disclose who's paying you.

To do that sounds simple enough.

However, that was mandatory.

It essentially made it as

a voluntary system, ...

... because that type kind

of definition is so subjective.

What is one's

primary purpose?

And as a result you had

9 out of 10 lobbyists ...

... not registering

and not disclosing.

When I started to work as

Capitol Hill lobbyists in 2002. ...

... that was the

time when the ...

... style of lobbying evolved

things like gift giving, ...

... campaign contributions,

fundraising, ...

... hiring the revolving-door

persons out of Congress ...

... with lucrative jobs.

And I noticed I just wasnt able

to get through to most people.

I couldnt even get through to

meet with many lawmakers ...

... unless I had

something to give.

So I started preparing ...

... legislation to reform the

lobbying process. But, ...

... as you can imagine ...

... no one reallly was interested

in my legislation proposal.

What changed

everything was this ...

... 'super-lobbyist'

named Jack Abramof ...

... who's suddenly was caught in the

middle of a big major sting operation.

I he agreed to

point the finger ...

... at those lawmakers

whom he bribed.

And as soon as

that news broke, ...

... my phone started ringing

off the hook over in my office.

I didnt even have to go visit

any legislators anymore.

They were calling

me, saying, ...

... 'You know that reform legislation

you were talking about?'

'Could we sign on to that?'

And at that point the legislation moved

through Congress, it moved very quickly.

And this is known as the Honest

Leadership and Open Government act.

We had a desire to regulate

lobbying for a long time.

But in 2004th the new Commission

came in. And for the first time, ...

... 10 East European

countries were a part of it.

The first Barroso Commission

started in the autumn of 2004.

We wrote an open letter to the

Commission president, ...

... to Jose Manuel Barroso,

signed by over 50 NGO's.

Response was a very

short form of letter.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes