How Euro-MPs play the system in their own interests: Leonard Doyle discloses why MEPs show little respect for the register of their lobby connections

ACCOMPANYING members of the newly-elected European Parliament to Strasbourg next week will be a large steel trunk containing 15 ringbound volumes where the newly minted Euro-parliamentarians are supposed to declare their interests.

Despite its size, the register has not earned much respect. Some MEPs treat it as a joke. Others, especially British Tories, use it to flaunt the number of paid consultancies they have picked up. 'The present system whereby MEPs can be on a company's payroll as long as they declare it creates a certain shamefulness among members,' said one insider. 'It feeds into a culture of kleptocracy in the parliament and curtails what MEPs do at a time when the parliament should be forging a clean and forceful identity.'

Despite the register, there are persistent allegations of MEPs exacting money from clients in return for favours at key points in the complex EU legislative process. The European Parliament's increased powers, superseding national legislatures in many areas, offer opportunities and temptations for shady practices by unscrupulous MEPs.

Dozens of MEPs, but above all British Conservatives, are paid by international corporations, pressure groups, public relations firms and even non-European Union governments to act as eyes and ears in Strasbourg and Brussels for vested interests. They come into their own at key moments of the process and can eviscerate draft legislation initiated by the Commission by adding or subtracting a 'but', 'if' or 'and'.

There are also perfectly legal means for MEPs to top up their already generous salaries and expense allowances. Several MEPs, including Labour's Allan Donnelly (Tyne and Wear) have arranged for the salary of their parliamentary assistants to be paid for by outside groups. Mr Donnelly has openly declared that his assistant's salary has been paid for the past 2 1/2 years by a US lobby group which represents business interests. Others keep such arrangements secret.

Bryan Cassidy (Cons, Dorset East & Hampshire West) is one of the most active MEPs in the pay of lobbyists. He has four consultancies, including Union Carbide, and in late September will chair a one-day conference on lobbying in London at a cost of pounds 405.38 per person. The brochure explains that the conference will 'explain whom to lobby, when and how and help you assess how best - and at what cost - you can make effective use of lobbying mechanisms'.

The ringbound register is a far from perfect exercise in openness and accountability. A voter from Britain seeking to discover the interests of an MEP must go to Strasbourg, Brussels or Luxembourg to read it; the register may only be inspected under the supervision; photocopying is forbidden and, when the Parliament is sitting in Strasbourg, a parallel register in Brussels is closed to the public.

Those who get to inspect the register find only handwritten scrawls in all the EU working languages. However, a recently published book, A Bit on the Side (Simon & Schuster pounds 12.99), gives an overview of the declared interests of British MEPs in the last parliament.

Since 1987 the Parliament has had alterations to draft legislation accepted in more than 2,000 cases, often at the behest of lobbyists, pressure groups and corporations who pay for their access to key lawmakers. Some lobbyists, such as Pat Murtagh, who represents the packaging industry and monitors recycling legislation, prefer to get their message across by arguing their cases on their merits and would prefer to see MEPs' salaries increased rather than have a system where they are tempted to take payments.

In Mr Donnelly's case, the parliamentary assistant has had his salary paid for by the American- European Community Association (AECA) based in New York. With privileged access to the parliamentary process and the run of the office, including free access to telephones, faxes and photocopying facilities, the researcher has kept his real employer up to date for the past two and a half years. The AECA is funded by US corporations such as the the cigarette maker Phillip Morris, which has a keen interest in lobbying against draft EU legislation. Because Mr Donnelly is also chairman of the Parliament's delegation for relations with the US, he has a valid reason for staying in close touch with the EU-US lobby group through his work for the office.

Mr Donnelly says there has been no conflict of interest in his researcher's work and that 'he did an excellent job' helping to improve relations on both sides of the Atlantic. 'The researcher's contract with the AECA has now ended and his salary is now paid for by the European Commission on behalf of the Media Business School in Madrid,' he said.