Biggest
companies now spend 40% more on EU lobbying than in 2012
New research
by LobbyFacts reveals that the 50 companies which declare spending
the most on EU lobbying are spending 40 per cent more today than in
2012.
In July
2012, the top 50 biggest company spenders on EU lobbying declared a
total of €76,213,190 but by 2016, the top 50 declared spending
€106,379,583, a 40 per cent overall increase.
Fifteen
companies from the 2012 top 50 list declared spending increases in
the 2016 list; and some posted some very large increases in lobby
expenditure. Volkswagen has moved up the rankings from place 35 in
2012, to 7 in 2016; Dow, from 28 in 2012, to 5 in 2016; and Google,
from place 40 in 2012, to 6 in 2016. Meanwhile five companies have
declared spending less on EU lobbying as of 2016 than they did in
2012. These include Ericsson which in 2012 was first in the rankings
but by 2016, had fallen to position 46 in the LobbyFacts ranking.
There are 27
new entries in today’s top 50 which did not feature in the 2012
list, either because their spending was less or because they were not
registered (the EU lobby register remains voluntary). These include
Huawei Technologies and Deutsche Bank, both of whom who were not
registered in 2012, but who now declare an annual lobby spend of
€3,000,000 (ranking position 9) and €3,904,000 (ranking position
4) respectively.
And there
are three companies who either have incredibly stable lobby spending
year to year, or who make lazily repetitive entries. These include
ExxonMobil and Microsoft who feature in the top 3 spenders in both
2012 and 2016.
Overall, the
financial services sector has a stronger presence in the 2016 list (8
entries) than the 2012 list (4 entries), which is mainly a reflection
of the fact that many big financial players were not registered in
2012. Energy is consistently represented in the 2012 and 2016 lists
with 14 entries.
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