After months the lack of trasparency in meetings between EU and tobacco lobbies is still there.
That’s what the European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly affirms, she regrets that European Commission did not choose the way of trasparency on meetings with tobacco industries and did not pay attention to the recomendations by the Ombudsman after the inquery by an NGO on the issue.
According to the EU Ombudsman, the EU Commission is continuing to not respect the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).
Background: dealings between EU and tobacco lobbies
In the past months the EU Ombudsman complained that meetings between tobacco lobbies and EU representatives have been under wraps. There was no spontaneus publication of the meetings’documentsl. The Commission publishes such meetings only in response to access of documents requests from MEPs.
Only the DG Health is respecting transparency rules by publishing those meetings’ documents, for the moment there are no improvements on that way from other EU Commission departements.
The investigation to which O’Reilly referred in her recomendations, has been conducted by the NGO Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) that concluded that at least fourteen meetings between EU Commission and tobacco’s industries have been under wraps.
The European Ombudsman in its recomendations called the Juncker Commission to publish all the meetings with the tobacco’s lobbies and to speedy reform of the EU’s lobbies register toward a mandatory system. Furthermore, O’Reilly reminded that all EU Commission DGs have to respect the rules on transparency, not only the DG Health.
The EU Commision’s opinion and the EU Ombudsman regret
The Commission does not agree with the conclusions by the EU Ombudsman and it affirms its discord. In its opinion it affirms that it meets its obligations under the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).
After that, the EU Ombudsman strongly regrets that “The European Commission has chosen not to make its dealings with the tobacco industry more transparent in line with UN guidelines”. According to the EU Ombudsman such a move would acknowledge the reality that the tobacco industry actively lobbies across multiple DGs in order to advance its commercial interests. O’Reilly appreciates the significant work that the Juncker Commission has done to improve lobbying transparency, and its intentions to make further improvements “However this is a missed opportunity by the Juncker Commission to show global leadership in the vital area of tobacco lobbying. The Prodi Commission took a lead role in the development of this important UN Convention” she said .
The Ombudsman will draw up her final analysis on this case, after recieving the feedback from the NGO complainant.
“It cannot be enough to adopt a restrictive view of what is expected from the UN FCTC or to justify lack of proactivity on the grounds that it has met the minimum legal requirements. Public health demands the highest standard” O’Reilly stated and concludes “Maintaining the status quo effectively means that future meetings of Commission officials with tobacco lobbyists may create distrust. It appears that the sophistication of global lobbying efforts by big tobacco continues to be underestimated”.
