LobbyControl
Budget
€1,948,062
EP Access
1
accredited persons
Staff
4
1.75 FTE
EU Grants
None
Mission & Goals
LobbyControl promotes transparency and a vivid democracy. We campaign for more transparency of lobbying and a legal, institutional and societal framework that limits undue influence of lobbyists on both politics and the public at large. Our organisation moreover works to expose and challenge the privileged and biased access and influence enjoyed by big corporations and their lobby groups on EU policy-making. Curbing the market power of major corporations is another aim of our work. LobbyControl was founded in 2005. We are committed to transparency about EU interest representation. We have been campaigning for this register since 2005 and have witnessed progress. Still the register fails to provide full EU lobbying transparency. When registering, we have therefore chosen to give all relevant information that we consider necessary for lobbying transparency. For example, all organisations in the register should be asked to provide a lobby budget.
EU Legislative Interests
- New Omnibus Packages on so called Simplification - Ethical Reforms after the @Qatargate Scandal in the EP - Defence of Democracy Package - Directive on Combating Corruption - Implementation of the Interinstitutional Agreement on a mandatory Transparency Register of all three institutions - Ethics Committee for all EU institutions - Implementation of Digital Services Act (DSA)/Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the lobbying around it - Lobbying around the AI act - Green New Deal, gas package and the lobbying around it - lack of legislative and lobbying transparency in the work of the Council. We looked at Council initiatives and decisions on strengthening legislative transparency as well as on corporate sponsorship of Presidencies - Regulatory Scrutiny Board and Better Regulation Agenda - Trade policy - LobbyControl is together with the NGO Corporate Europe Observatory Operator of the Lobbyfacts.eu platform
Communication Activities
2025: - letter to members of the AFCO committee and to Parliament President Metsola with our petition to finally set up the EU Ethics Body - Input for Cabinet Sefcovic together with CEO and TI EU on loopholes and weaknesses of the EU tranparency register 2024 - letter to all newly elected MEPs introducing LobbyControl - EU Lobbyreport: https://www.lobbycontrol.de/ueber-uns/publikationen-material/lobbyreport/ - Position paper on conflicts of interest in DG competition - Petition for lobbying rules with teeth (for enforcement of the rules) - Petition for more ressources to control the DMA 2023: - Online-Petition: Gesetzgebung darf keine Geheimsache sein https://www.lobbycontrol.de/lobbyismus-in-der-eu/gesetzgebung-darf-keine-geheimsache-sein-2-105162/ - press conference refering to the reactions of the Parliament to Qatargate - open letter together with other NGOs regarding the planned foreign agents law 2022: - Letter to Vera Jourova on the implementation flaws of the new transparency register https://www.alter-eu.org/sites/default/files/documents/220202%20letter%20transparency%20register%20implementation_0.pdf - legal opinion on the Enforcement of the Digital Markets Act - Letter to the EU Parliament about necessary consequences following from the Kaili scandal together with the ALTER-EU network https://www.alter-eu.org/documents/2022/12/alter-eu-demands-in-reaction-to-the-kaili-scandal 2021 - Study: The firepower of the Big tech lobby https://www.lobbycontrol.de/2021/08/neue-studie-zur-lobbymacht-von-big-tech/ - research and blogposts about the power of Big Tech and the lobbying around DSA and DMA - Letter to Thierry Breton and Margrethe Vestager warning of the aggressive and intransparent lobbying by Big Tech Companies on the Digital Services Act/Digital Markets Act 2020 - blogposts and articles about Germany's blocking of the EU proposal on the disclosure of Income Tax Information of transnational corporations - Report together with Corporate Europe Observatory: Tainted Love - Corporate Lobbying and the upcoming German EU Presidency
Interests Represented
Does not represent commercial interests
Member Of
LobbyControl is a member of - ENCO network - Allianz „Rechtssicherheit für politische Willensbildung“ - LobbyControl is operator of the EU data portal "Lobbyfacts" (together with Corporate Europe Observatory)
Organisation Members
LobbyControl hat nur natürliche Personen als Mitglieder.
Additional Information
LobbyControl regrets that non-commercial organisations don't have to give a Lobbybudget anymore. This leads to a lack of comparability of the data. The public will misunderstand this and compare lobbybudgets and general budgets. We are discussing this temporarily with the EU-Institutions. Meanwhile we give our lobbybudget voluntarily here: LobbyControl's EU lobby budget in 2024 was: € 417.000 (calculated from the previously valid factors such as personnel costs, rent, material costs,...).
Commissioner Meetings
No recorded meetings with EU commissioners.