Transparency of Politics. The Role of Corporate Lobbying in Accounting Standard Setting

Michael Kreienbaum

• Publisher: GRIN Verlag
• Year: 2022
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9783346718204
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Accounting
• Index: Business

Seminar paper from the year 2022 in the subject Business economics - Accounting and Taxes, grade: 1,0, University of Mannheim, language: English, abstract: In March 2022, when the European Commission (EC) proposed including nuclear and gas activities in its taxonomy for sustainable activities, it aroused considerable public attention. Although key decision-makers of the European Parliament (EP) intended to object to the EC's proposal formally, the EP's plenary did not follow their guidance. In fact, 278 of 705 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) voted in favor of the objection, and 33 further MEPs abstained. As of today, it is unknown which role business interests played in the decision of the EP not to oppose the proposal. What is known, though, is their omnipresence at the EU level. Today, the Transparency Register of the EU records 12,687 registered lobbyists that have access to the key institutions of the EU. This paper examines the transparency of the EP, the directly elected EU institution supposed to be closest to EU citizens. It does so by focusing on the role that business interests play in the decision-making as regards accounting regulation. Accounting regulation, thereby, refers to the endorsement of IFRS by the EU as well as transparency regulations like the EU taxonomy. Both related areas have substantial economic consequences as they have the potential to re-allocate economic resources. As such, they are highly relevant policy areas for corporate lobbyists. The paper proceeds as follows. Section 2 provides an overview of the relevant legislative procedures at the EU level and examines the EP's legislative influence, gauging its attractiveness for business interests. Section 3 then introduces the concepts of lobbying, transparency, and how both are interrelated. It thereby examines the EP's transparency regarding the availability of information and demonstrates how to trace contacts between MEPs and corporate lobbyists. Section 4 finally narrows down the discussion to lobbyism within the EP, providing a holistic discussion of the contemporary literature. Section 5 concludes.