Читать книгу Lobbying Uncovered? - Lisa Moessing - Страница 8

Today lobbying tends to be approached as a rather mysterious and nontransparent profession, which seeks to tailor legislation to its ends and is seen to occur as a gray area of politics.[2] Several regulative mechanisms have been implemented in the past to monitor such activities in various democratic countries in an effort to increase the transparency of lobbying and to enhance an open dialogue between political leadership, interest representatives, and the public. One of the most recent mechanisms is the Transparency Register (TR) of the European Union (EU), which was launched in 2011 jointly by the European Parliament (EP) and the European Commission as part of the European Transparency Initiative (ETI). Despite the ambitious approach and an increasing amount of registrants, regulation remains voluntary. The register lacks a clear and detailed definition of ‘the lobbyist’ as such, disclosure requirements are partially misleading, and sufficient incentives for registration are still intensively debated. In contrast, the mandatory register in the United States is often referred to as one of the most advanced concepts of lobbying disclosure and frequently serves as an argument used by critics of the EU’s voluntary approach. The US register was a result of the Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) in 1995; however, it is still imperfect in its conception. The study at hand contrasts both approaches by their scope and legal basis, identifies current weaknesses and strengths, and points out criticism. Based on these findings and by the involvement of personal expertise of lobbyists, EU and US officials, scholars and lobby critics, this thesis identifies areas of the European model that require improvement. The book is also designed to enlighten its readers that even if the profession of lobbyists still maintains a huge influential power on political decision-making, it is not necessarily as opaque and negative as usually conveyed, if one only takes a closer look.

The findings of this book can be a complementary input to the revision process of the TR for various reasons: First, since the European register has been launched in 2011, it is still relatively new and without a doubt has still not been examined to a satisfactory extent. Second, a policy process created and shaped by 28 Member States obviously requires critical input from its citizens. Third, specific measures, regulations, and instruments of a certain political system should permanently be contrasted with other existing concepts, which is realized by this book through its analysis of a North American register. Finally, as research will disclose, resources of the Joint Transparency Register Secretariat (JTRS) are limited. Thus, the possibility for the conduction of broader research related to the register is assumed to be restricted as well.