Expertengruppen der EU-Kommission

• Überblick A-Z
• Lobbyismus in der EU

Expertengruppen der EU-Kommission (engl. EU Expert Groups, European Commission’s advisory groups) Beratungsgremien, die die EU-Kommission unterstützen in Vorbereitung von Gesetzgebungsvorschlägen und politischen Initiativen (Initiativrecht der EU-Kommission);

spielen eine wichtige Rolle bei der Erarbeitung neuer politischer Initiativen der EU-Kommission, oftmals erarbeiten sie die Grundlagen für diese.

Kritik daran wegen einseitiger Besetzung mit Unternehmenslobbyisten

Beispiele Expertengruppen

Es gibt fast 1000 Beratungsgremien

Name der Expertengruppe		aktiv seit:	zugeordnet der Generaldirektion:	Quelle
CARS 2020 Expert Group	auch CARS 21 genannt, the Expert Group advising on the future of the automotive industry	11.03.2013	ENTR - GD Unternehmen und Industrie
Group of Experts on Banking Issues - GEBI			MARKT - GD Binnenmarkt und Dienstleistungen
High Level Group on Administrative Burdens	Edmund Stoiber ist Vorsitzender dieser Expertengruppe zum Bürokratieabbau		SG - Generalsekretariat
High-Level Group on Financial Supervision in the EU	ist beendet, ist gleich De Larosière Expert Group
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Stakeholder Advisory Group	Beratergruppe zum Freihandelsabkommen TTIP		TRADE - GD Handel
Platform for Tax Good Governance, Aggressive Tax Planning and Double Taxation	Beratung zu Maßnahmen gegen Steuerumgehung und für gemeinsame steuerliche Mindeststandards	10.07.2013	TAXUD - GD Steuern und Zollunion
Joint Transfer Pricing Forum (JTPF)	entscheidend für die Bekämpfung von Steuervermeidung, von 16 sind 8 in Unternehmensberatungen wie Deloitte und die anderen 8 von multinationalen Unternehmen	01.10.2005	TAXUD - GD Steuern und Zollunion

(Stand: Juni 2014) Quelle: EU-Kommission - Register der Expertengruppen und anderer ähnlicher Einrichtungen

Register unterscheidet: expert groups and other similar entities A body set up by the Commission or its departments to provide it with advice and expertise, comprising at least 6 public and/or private-sector members and meeting more than once.

Es gibt zwei Arten von Expertengruppen der Kommission:

• formelle Expertengruppen – eingesetzt durch einen Beschluss der Kommission;
• informelle Expertengruppen – eingesetzt von einer einzelnen Kommissionsdienststelle

Expertengruppen beraten die Kommission und ihre Dienststellen und vermitteln ihnen Fachwissen Expertengruppen sind im Grunde Diskussionsforen. Diese Beiträge haben keine bindende Wirkung Mitglieder sind Einzelpersonen und Organisationen. Quelle:

MEP conditions Abgeordnete des EU-Parlaments froren im November 2011 das Budget der Expertengruppen der EU-Kommission ein, da diese nichts gegen das Problem der Unternehmensdominanz in diesen Gruppen unternahm. Im September 2012 gaben sie das Budget wieder frei, nachdem das SG-Generalsekretariat zustimmte, die Gruppen in 4 Bereichen zu reformieren:

1. Keine Dominanz von Unternehmensvertretern. Dominanz heißt dabei, Unternehmen haben eine Mehrheit der Sitze inne, die nicht für RegierungsvertreterInnen reserviert sind.
2. VertreterInnen von Unternehmen dürfen nicht mit dem Label “Unabhängige Experten” versehen werden.
3. Neue Gruppen sollen frühzeitig bekannt gemacht und die Mitgliedschaft öffentlich ausgeschrieben werden.
4. Volle Transparenz der Protokolle und Tagesordnungen sowie Beiträge der Kommission.

Fallstudien und Kritik

2013: Expertengruppe "Platform for Tax Good Governance, Aggressive Tax Planning and Double Taxation"

Im ersten Halbjahr 2013 wurde viel über die Steuervermeidungsstrategien von multinationalen Unternehmen wie Apple oder Starbucks berichtet. Mitte des Jahres 2013 richtete die EU-Kommission eine Expertengruppe zum Thema ein. Sie soll den EU-Kommissar für Steuern Algirdas Šemeta bei Maßnahmen gegen Steuerumgehung und für gemeinsame steuerliche Mindeststandards beraten.
Die Expertengruppe, Kurzform: "Plattform", besteht nun aus 28 VertreterInnen der EU-Mitgliedsländer sowie 15 VertreterInnen von Nichtregierungsorganisationen. 9 der 15 "NGOs" sind Unternehmerverbände, Handelskammern sowie Wirtschaftsprüfer- und Steuerberatervertretungen, zB. Businesseurope, International Chamber of Commerce (ICC, Internationale Handelskammer) Confédération Fiscale Européenne (C.F.E., europäischer Steuerberaterverband). Akteure also, die die effektive “Vermeidung” von Steuern bisher erfunden, gefördert oder zumindest schweigend geduldet haben. ,

Internetadresse: Plattform für verantwortungsvolles Handeln im Steuerwesen

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The European Commission’s response to the financial crisis was guided by the De Larosière Expert Group, named after its chair and senior banking industry figure, Jaques De Larosière Formally known as the High-Level Group on Financial Supervision in the EU, 4 der 8 members had close links with the same banks most implicated in the crisis (Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Lehman Brothers, BNP Parisbas), while a 5. was a known advocate of deregulation and a 6. worked for the UK Financial Services Authority Es gab einen Ergebnisreport von dieser Gruppe

Businesseurope sitzt in 55 verschiedenen Expertengruppen

finale Reports der Expertengruppen bilden oft das Rückrat der EC-Gesetzesinitiativen

die formale Überprüfung der Regeln für Expertengruppen wird nicht vor 2015 erfolgen As the formal review of Expert Group rules would not take place until 2015, MEPs and the Commission entered into an Informal Dialogue to make sure they found de facto ways of implementing the conditions without new rules. If the Informal Dialogue did not lead to the conditions being met, MEPs said, the budget would be refrozen, Seite 4 Hat die EC ihre Versprechen gehalten?

Diese Studie schaut auf die 38 Gruppen und Untergruppen, die entstanden in dem einen Jahr seit das EP freigegeben das Budget, Zeitraum von September 2012- September 2013

Ergebnis: Studie hat gezeigt, dass viele der Expert Groups weiterhin dominiert sind von Interessen von Großkonzernen. Andere Org. sind unterrepräsentiert

the 3 most corporate-dominated DGs, Taxation and Customs Union (TAXUD), the Secretariat-General (SG) and DG Enterprise and Industry

Expert Group on a Debt Redemption Fund and Eurobills is heavily dominated by corporate interests

High-Level Group on Administrative Burdens Edmund Stoiber) also has more members representing corporate interests than all other stakeholders combined (9 out of 16), and has been the subject of widespread criticism for promoting pro-industry deregulatory agendas and ignoring the public interest A recent example was the use of the group by its chair, Edmund Stoiber, to lobby for weaker tobacco regulation after being contacted by German tobacco manufacturers, see http://www.foeeurope.org/Commission-must-clear-smoke-tobacco-lobbying-170113

CARS 21 Packed full of industry representatives, CARS21 helped water down and postpone legislation on tougher CO2 standards which vehicle manufacturers saw as a threat to profits See http://corporateeurope.org/sites/default/files/dgentr-driving.pd according to the on-line Expert Group Register, its new incarnation, ‘CARS 2020’, still has 10 out of 16 spots filled by corporate interests and the issue of emissions remains on the agenda.

(Taxation, Secretariat-General, Enterprise): big business occupies 66% of all seats, not given to government representatives NGOs (11%), and trade unions (5%)

Data Retention Experts Group DG HOME touches on the very sensitive issue of data privacy, yet the group is composed exclusively of members representing or closely linked to the biggest players in Europe’s telecommunications industry

DG AGRI Expert Group on Agricultural Commodity Derivatives and Spot Markets, 94% of members represent corporate interests – including agribusiness and the retail food industry

data retention Vorratsdatenspeicherung

the newly created Data Retention Experts Group is dominated by the telecommunications industry, has individuals representing corporate interests sitting in a personal capacity and has no civil society representatives

Among the 7 members not representing government interests, all 5 of the organisations (Cable Europe; EuroISPA; European Competitive Telecommunications Association, ECTA; European Telecommunications Network Operators Association, ETNOA; GSM Association) are there on behalf of telecommunications giants.

Gerald McQuaid, the sole “representative of an interest” is listed in the Register as Chair of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute Lawful Interception and Data Retention Committee, an industry standardisation body, but it fails to mention he is a senior manager at Vodafone.

Christopher Kuner, Senior Of Counsel in the Brussels office of corporate law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, wrongly listed as there in a personal capacity. As well as advising corporate clients how to operate around privacy legislation while staying within the letter of the law, he is also the Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce Task Force on Privacy and the Protection of Personal Data

Fazit: Lobbyisten – particularly representing corporate interests – are still being labelled as ‘independent’ in Expert Groups.

VAT Expert Group Taxation and Customs Union DG is dominated by corporate interests including Deloitte (two individuals in a personal capacity), Ernst & Young and KPMG (one individual each)

The Commission’s claim that the problem is purely administrative also downplays the highly political nature of the problem: that the Commission has been accepting supposedly-impartial advice from big business. How was this allowed to happen – where was the conflict of interest policy that ensured independent experts were actually independent?

European Parliament clearly stating that no lobbyists should sit in Expert Groups in a personal capacity

Ergebnis der 30-er Studie: Across all new groups, almost 60% failed to put out open calls for applications

Barroso publicly announced the creation of a new Expert Group on a debt redemption fund and eurobills im Juli 2013 this one was undemocratically hand-picked by Barroso and his Vice-President and DG Economic and Financial Affairs (ECFIN) Commissioner Olli Rehn http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regexpert/index.cfm?do=groupDetail.groupDetail&groupID=2935&NewSearch=1&NewSearch=1 10 Mitglieder

7 representing corporate interests, 2 academia and 1

hybrid interests

Chairperson Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell is on the Board of 

Directors of Germany’s second-largest banking group, Commerzbank, Seit dem 1. Juni 2012 ist sie im Aufsichtsrat der Commerzbank vertreten

while Beatrice Weder di Mauro is on the Board of Directors of the Swiss bank UBS. Among the other ‘experts’ are CEOs of big corporations

and a former advisor to the pro-big business and free markets 

Commissioner Rehn, who now represents the interests of Finnish industry.

Condition 4: Full transparency More than 80% of all organisations representing corporate interests have not been labelled as such

DG MARKT created a series of Expert Groups, called Licences for Europe, to develop “market-based solutions to improve the availability of digital content in the EU”,

in other words asking the audio-visual 

industry to write its own rules on issues like copyright, Licence for Europe - Stakeholder Expert Group http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regexpert/index.cfm?do=groupDetail.groupDetail&groupID=2926&NewSearch=1&NewSearch=1 The group is under the direction of Maria Martin- Prat, who has travelled through the revolving door between regulator and regulated in both directions. Originally at the Commission, she then became Deputy General Counsel and Director of Legal Policy and Regulatory Affairs for the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), a trade association for re- corded music publishers

DG MARKT has failed to list any of the group and 

subgroup members in the Register due to the “large number of participants.” Aside from clearly breaching the rules, this has not prevented other DGs listing their members for equally large groups. DG MARKT instead lists the names of those invited to participate (which suggests there was no call for applications) and those who attended meetings, but not who the members actually are and no information beyond organisational names The Expert Group is dominated by corporate interests. For example, in the ‘User-generated content and licensing’ working group, one of four subgroups, 78% of participants represent the copyright industry, while 13% represent civil society. Of the 20 additional observers, 90% are industry representatives

The European Commission has failed to ensure that groups created since the budget freeze was lifted abide by the conditions it agreed with MEPs The Informal Dialogue launched between MEPs and the Commission to ensure the conditions were being implemented has not delivered in any of the four areas. there are more corporate interests in new groups than all other stakeholders combined, while SMEs and trade unions have only 3% of new seats each This means that corporate interests continue to dominate in many of the key DGs and Expert Groups that shape European legislation seite fertig

Quelle: ALTER-EU, AK EUROPA and ÖGB Europabüro Studie: "A Year of Broken Promises - Big business still put in charge of EU Expert Groups, despite commitment to reform" vom 06.11.2013 http://www.alter-eu.org/documents/2013/11/a-year-of-broken-promises

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DG Agriculture and Rural Affairs (AGRI): Of the 30 advisory groups created by a 2004 Decision, which AGRI has promised to reform, 80 per cent of the members come from large farming organisations and the food industry nur 29 der 943 places have gone to small-scale or organic farming interests, 38 to consumer groups and 36 to environmental groups, während COPA-COGECA 442 Sitze hat

noch nicht fertig ausgewertet Quelle: [2]

Finanzbranche

• Dominanz der Finanzbranche in den Expertengruppen der EU

die Reaktion der EU-Kommission auf die Finanzkrise 2008 war die Einrichtung der High-Level Group on Financial Supervision in the EU (ist gleich) De Larosière Expert Group, benannt nach Jacques de Larosière. 4 der 8 Mitglieder hatten enge Verbindungen with the same banks most implicated in the crisis (Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Lehman Brothers, BNP Paribas), while a fifth was a known advocate of deregulation and a sixth worked for the UK Financial Services Authority, described as systematically failing to predict or avoid the crisis. The resulting Expert Group report claimed it would improve EU supervision over banks but – unsurprisingly given the makeup of the group – failed to address the fundamental question of whether banks could and should continue to regulate themselves or what to do with banks that were ‘too big to fail’, both key factors in the crash. Quelle: ALTER-EU (2009) A Captive Commission: the role of the financial industry in shaping EU regulation. See http://www.alter-eu.org/en/system/files/publications/ CaptiveCommission.pdf

• So sitzen im Gremium, das die Generaldirektion berät, für welche Projekte im Bereich Sicherheitsforschung Geld aus dem EU-Forschungsprogramm ausgegeben werden soll, neben 8 Mitgliedstaaten 9 Vertreter aus der Wirtschaft – darunter die Unternehmen Siemens und EADS, die von dem Programm bereits profitiert haben. NGOs sind nicht vertreten; nur 3 Universitäten schicken Experten.

http://www.taz.de/!97053/

Beispiele Expertengruppen, die von Unternehmen kontrolliert werden:

Alternative fuels Changement Climatique et Industrie Coal Combustion Clean Coal and efficient coal technologies, CO2 capture Competitiveness in Biotechnology Advisory Group with Industry and Academia (CBAG) High Level Group on Textiles and Clothing Informing Consumer Behaviour Working Group Supervisory Group on the voluntary commitments of car manufactureres to reduce CO2 emissions

Edmund Stoiber 2012: Versuchte Einflussnahme für bayrische Schnupftabakindustrie

High Level Group (HLG) - Gruppe Hoher Repräsentanten Die HLG setzt sich zusammen aus jeweils einem Hohen Repräsentanten pro Mitgliedsland und trifft 4x im Jahr zusammen, um über laufende Projektanträge zu entscheiden, die Strategie der Initiative zu definieren und die Entscheidungen der Ministerkonferenz umzusetzen.

Quellen

March 2013: ALTER-EU, , We Need to Talk About Expert Group: ALTER-EU State of Play (Revised), available at http://www.alter-eu.org/sites/default/files/documents/EG%20State%20of%20Play_March_Revised%20%281%29_0.pdf

2012: ALTER-EU, Who’s driving the agenda at DG Enterprise and Industry?, available at http://www.alter-eu.org/sites/default/files/documents/DGENTR-driving_0.pdf

2011: Corporate Europe Obervatory, 2011, ‘DG Internal Market’s Expert Groups: More needed to break financial industry’s strong hold’, available at http://corporateeurope.org/lobbycracy/2011/12/dg-internal-market-expert-groups-more-needed-break-financial-industry-stronghold

2009: A captive Commission: the role of the financial industry in shaping EU regulation http://www.alter-eu.org/sites/default/files/documents/a-captive-commission-5-11-09.pdf

https://www.lobbycontrol.de/2009/02/einseitige-expertengruppen-zur-finanzkrise/

2008: https://www.lobbycontrol.de/wp-content/uploads/secrecy-and-corporate-dominance_zusammenfassung.pdf http://www.corporatejustice.org/IMG/pdf/expertgroupsreport.pdf

??, Friends of the Earth: http://www.foeeurope.org/sites/default/files/publications/whose_views_count.pdf

http://www.alter-eu.org/sites/default/files/documents/ALTER-EU.NoteforMEPs.Expertgroups.pdf

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