EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Lobbyists looking to influence the EU decision-making process should be registered on an online database, and recordings of their meetings with decision-makers should be made public, a new transparency coalition has argued.

The coalition - calling itself the Alliance for Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU) - is also calling for mandatory public disclosure of clients, minutes of meetings and operational budgets of legal firms, public affairs consultancies and NGOs active in lobbying the EU.

An improved code of conduct for commission officials and an extended cooling-off period for EU officials wanting to jump into the lobbying world are also featured in the list of demands.

"A system of electronic registration and reporting for lobbyists is entirely feasible and neither costly nor bureaucratic", argued William Dinan from Strathclyde University at the launch of the alliance on Tuesday (19 July).

Mr Dinan explained that the proposal draws from the Canadian and the US transparency models.

One hundred and forty civil society groups have signed ALTER-EU's statement, as well as two lobbying consultancies active in Brussels.

"The public pays a heavy price for the big-money lobbying that goes on in Brussels, since legislation to improve health and the environment loses out every time", said Greenpeace's European director Jorgo Riss.

Eric Wesselius, from the Amsterdam-based Corporate Europe Observatory lobby watchdog, argued that the transparency initiative should be included in the communication commissioner's new Democracy-plan for Europe.

60-90 million a year

EU anti-fraud commissioner Siim Kallas welcomed the new alliance, officially inaugurated in the heart of the corporate lobby district in Brussels - near the central EU institutions.

"There must be a register for organisations", he said, but "whether it is compulsory or not is different", he underlined.

Lobby activities in Brussels, which are worth an estimated ?60 to 90 million per year and involve around 15,000 professional lobbyists - the majority representing industry - are considered not transparent by the commissioner.

"Lack of accountability results in a furious public opinion which feels deceived, and finally rejects the European project altogether ... We cannot let that happen", the commissioner said earlier in the year, two months before the French and Dutch rejections of the EU constitution.

A legal package on transparency has been in the pipelines since March, dubbed the European Transparency Initiative, and is aimed at getting lobbyists to disclose the issues they are lobbying on, for which clients and for what fees.

Whether or not lobbyists are ultimately going to be forced to disclose that information remains uncertain.

"I keep all possibilities open", said Mr Kallas. "If it is possible to achieve somehow by voluntary legislation it would be best", he said, but "I don't close the possibility that it will finally come to the need to introduce mandatory legislation", he added.