Why are EU lobbyists refusing to come clean on their funding?

Now this is quite curious, no? Why are the EU Lobbyists refusing to open up their books to make it clear as to who is funding them? I support the commissioner, go for it, get them to open books and have some transparency on who is funding whom. I am a taxpayer and if there are parties out there who are influencing my life through influencing legislation, I want and need to know.

See this article from EurActive, some extracts given here.

Faced with a boycott from public-affairs firms in Brussels over revealing their fees in a new public register, Anti-fraud Commissioner Siim Kallas has insisted that financial disclosure was a non-negotiable part of his transparency proposals, due next year.

In a speech held at Nottingham University on 3 March 2005, Administrative Affairs and Anti-Fraud Commissioner Siim Kallas launched the idea of a transparency initiative concentrating on three key areas:

• Increasing the financial accountability of EU funding;
• strengthening personal integrity and independence of EU institutions, and;
• imposing stricter controls on lobbying.

Since then, the debate has tended to focus on the transparency of lobbying and the issue of whether to regulate the activities of the estimated 15,000 professionals seeking to influence decision-making in Brussels: public affairs consultants, lawyers, and activists of all kinds.

Issues:

Designing practical rules for financial disclosure of lobbying activities in Brussels is the final and perhaps highest hurdle in the way of Commissioner Kallas's initiative to make the EU more open and transparent to the general public.

Last month, Brussels's largest public-affairs companies - represented by umbrella group EPACA - refused to participate in a proposed voluntary register because it would have forced them to disclose the names of their clients and the amount of fees they receive (EurActiv 23/08/07).

But Kallas said he will not bow to pressure and was seeking practical solutions to the problem. "Without financial disclosure, this whole exercise loses credibility," the Commissioner told a group of Brussels-based journalists last week (30 August). "There must be financial disclosure. We will fight to have an acceptable solution to this question."

Latest & next steps:

• Oct. 2007: Commission to present study by the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA) on the "professional ethics of holders of public office", including the executive power, central banks and courts of justice. The study, Kallas said, will give an overview of problems that can arise across 20 EU member states covering four main areas: Conflicts of interest, revolving doors, gifts and spouses.
• Oct. 2007: Commission to present study and proposed measures to a Parliament hearing on lobbying issues.
• Spring 2008: Commission to present proposal for lobbyists' register.

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!