Blocking the Brussels revolving door

Vicky Cann, Corporate Europe Observatory

In September this year a British guy, Parvez Khan went to work for one of the major lobby consultancies in Brussels G+. No one knows how many lobbyists there are in Brussels exactly, but estimates range from 15,000 – 30,000. But what makes Khan interesting is that he was previously a financial attaché for the UK government working in Brussels and on loan from the UK Financial Services Authority.

So here is someone with experience of working for the UK regulator of the banks is now working for a Brussels lobby consultancy, one of whose major clients is RBS – Royal Bank of Scotland!

This is a good example of the phenomenon of the revolving door between public institutions and the private sector, and this week the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU) of which WDM is a member, is launching a campaign to block the revolving door in Brussels.

The European authorities have no transparency about how many officials go through the revolving door, but it is clear to Brussels-watchers that the revolving door problem is serious and makes a major contribution to the cosy relationships between the EU institutions and big business. The revolving door can lead to privileged access and conflicts of interest on a massive scale. 

A new ALTER-EU report on this issue features numerous cases of officials who have gone through the revolving door. And it's not just the finance sector where this is a problem.

Derek Taylor (another Brit) worked for the Commission for 25 years on energy issues, including nuclear policy, 'clean coal' and carbon capture and storage, until 2009. He then joined the lobby firm Burson-Marsteller as an adviser on energy issues. Burson-Marsteller’s clients include Suez Environnment and Exxon Mobil Chemical. Taylor also  became the European representative of the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute. It's not difficult to see the potential conflicts of interest that these jobs could provoke.

 It's clear that this situation needs to change. ALTER-EU is demanding:

-        A ban of at least two years for all EU staff from becoming lobbyists

-        New rules to regulate lobbyists who join the EU institutions

-        Full transparency about all revolving door cases

You can find out more about the revolving door campaign. And together we can block the revolving door!