The power of lobbyists is growing in Brussels and Berlin

EUROPEANS HAVEDC long assumed that excessive lobbying is only an American problem. But over the past 15 years Brussels has become the world’s second capital of the dark arts after Washington, , with Berlin not far behind. Both cities have become infested with new arrivals who are pushier and use more sophisticated techniques than old-fashioned associations such as the Federation of German Industry or BusinessEurope. Weak rules in both places are not designed to cope with the explosion of activity.As international public-relations firms have moved in, big companies have also beefed up their in-house lobbying activities (see chart). Google and Facebook have opened offices in the government district of Berlin, near the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, and in the Quartier Léopold of Brussels, close to the European Commission, the executive body of the European Union.