This report on lobbying in Europe was written well before the “Uber files” affair involving Emmanuel Macron. And yet in the chapter devoted to France, the European executive asks Paris to “guarantee that the rules on lobbying activities are systematically applied to all the actors concerned, in particular to the highest executive functions”, noting ” that a large number of concerns persist” in this area.
As part of the “Uber files”, a vast investigation of journalists based on thousands of internal Uber documents, the newspaper Le Monde revealed the privileged exchanges between Emmanuel Macron when he was Minister of the Economy (2014- 2016), and the American company of private drivers.
“Lack of human and technical resources” of HATVP
The Commission notes that a recommendation by the Group of States against Corruption (Greco), the anti-corruption body of the Council of Europe, on the obligation to declare contacts between lobbyists and persons holding high positions within the executive, has not been implemented.
El Greco had recommended in a report in January that “persons exercising high executive functions be required to report publicly and at regular intervals on the representatives of interests met and the topics discussed” and that “all representatives of interests who meet with a public official (…), whether they themselves have requested the interview or not, have the obligation to register in the register of interest representatives”.
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But the Commission also considers that the High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life (HATVP) in France, responsible for the public register of interest representatives, “lacks human and technical resources” to carry out checks.