Yahoo – AFP,
Marine Laouchez and Alex Pigman, 2 Oct 2015
 |
Volkswagen
has admitted 11 million of its vehicles worldwide are equipped with
software
that dupes pollution emission testing (AFP Photo/Paul J. Richards)
|
Brussels
(AFP) - Scandal-hit Volkswagen has for years hired a cadre of lobbyists in the
EU capital of Brussels who work intensely behind-the-scenes to influence policy
and secure European regulation with a lighter touch.
Activists
have long warned of the power of lobbying in Brussels, with German automakers
the most powerful in the industry, although French, Japanese and US auto
manufacturers also push hard.
The auto
lobby is second only to the financial industry in the hallways of EU power as
reported to the European Union's transparency registry.
 |
Activists
have long warned of the
power of lobbying at the EU, with the
auto lobby second
only to the financial
industry in the hallways of EU power as
reported to the
European Union's
transparency registry
(AFP Photo/
John Thys)
|
"It's
impossible to estimate how many there are," said Jos Dings, head of the
non-governmental group Transport and Environment.
Though
lobbying is perfectly legal, the thousands of lobbyists in Brussels often work
"under the radar", he said.
The car
industry annually spends about "20 million euros ($22.3 million), with
half of that from the big German players: Volkswagen, Daimler and Opel,"
said Pascoe Sabido, of lobby watchdog the Corporate European Observatory.
These
lobbyists solicit the European Commission at all levels, from commissioners and
their chiefs of staff to the estimated 700 expert groups that guide EU policy
at the most detailed level.
'Starts
early'
"It
all starts very early," said Dings. "The Commission starts a strategy
process, say on climate change or air pollution. This is where the lobbying
starts, long before there is any regulation."
At first,
he said corporate lobbyists fight for the Commission to do nothing.
"But
if by sheer luck, the Commission decides to regulate, the next stage comes: it
becomes delay and weaken," Dings said.
All new
regulation emerges from expert groups: incubators for European laws that once
passed will deeply impact the lives of the EU's 500 million citizens.
"The
Commission is quite small in terms of staff, about the same as city hall in
Paris, so they look for experts outside," said Sabido.
"This
becomes a very nice opportunity for lobbyists," he said, adding that VW
sits on four or five such groups.
 |
Long
exposure view of the Volkswagen headquarters in Wolfsburg, central
Germany, at
night on September 30, 2015 (AFP Photo/John MacDougall)
|
Under EU
rules, NGOs and stakeholders also participate in expert groups, but their
influence is much weaker.
"We
have four people who have to follow the entire automotive file," said
Dings.
"We
have to be selective, in quite a few we are not represented at all," he
said.
'Guess
who?'
Bas
Eickhout, a Green Party member of the European Parliament, described a process
rife with the potential for conflict of interest.
He hoped
the VW scandal was "opening eyes".
In later
stage technical groups "it's the national experts who sit around the table
and also, guess who?, the car industry," he said.
"There
is a huge grey zone: are they at the table to provide information or to
participate in the decision-making? The technical information and the political
decision making are happening at the same time," he said.
Here even
diplomats from the EU's 28 member countries can do the bidding of big
companies.
In
documents leaked to AFP last week, Germany is seen to lobby hard to maintain
European pollution tests that are widely considered ineffective.
Even the
industry's allies in the European Parliament acknowledge that the influence of
auto giants may have reached the limits of acceptability.
 |
A measuring
hose for emissions inspections in diesel engines sticks in the exhaust
tube of
a Volkswagen (VW) Golf 2,0 TDI diesel car at a garage in Frankfurt an der
Oder,
eastern Germany, on October 1, 2015 (AFP Photo/Patrick Pleul))
|
"I am
aware that the car industry in Europe and in Germany is very important..., but
it doesn't mean we have to accept everything they propose," said MEP
Karl-Heinz Florenz from the right of centre EPP group that is traditionally
close to big industry.
"They
do a good job, they convince a lot of members," he said.
However,
they also "never lie", he added.
For the car
lobby, what they are fighting is competition from Asia, where they feel looser
pollution laws bring bigger profits, threatening European jobs.
A new EU
pollution test to be implemented next year, "makes Europe the only region
in the world to implement such real world testing for cars," the powerful
ACEA lobby said after the VW scandal broke.
The
European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) would "continue to
engage with the European Commission and national governments" to
"ensure trust" in the auto industry, it added.
Related Article:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.