June 10th 2013The financial lobby, EU in crisis
A broad range of public interest groups have today sent an official complaint to European Commissioner Algirdas Šemeta about the newly-established Tax Platform, which they claim is “fundamentally compromised”. In a stunt staged this morning, as members of the platform arrived, they denounced the Commission for “putting foxes in charge of the hen house” when tackling tax dodging.
June 7th 2013Trade
In a ruling delivered today following a lawsuit by lobby watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory, the EU’s General Court in Luxembourg concludes that the European Commission did not violate EU rules when withholding information about the EU-India free trade talks from the public, even though it had already shared the information with corporate lobby groups. Corporate Europe Observatory warns that this decision risks deepening the secrecy around EU trade negotiations and legitimises the Commission’s practice of granting corporate lobby groups privileged access to its policy-making, at the expense of the wider public interest.
June 17th 2013Revolving Doors
Key Swedish Match lobbyist in the Dalligate tobacco lobby scandal worked in the European Commission for five years. But unbelievably, when he left to become a tobacco lobbyist he was not screened for potential conflicts of interest, a clear breach of the revolving door rules in the Staff Regulations. Once again, the shoddy implementation of ethics rules by the Commission has been exposed in the wake of a big lobbying scandal. Read the whole case on CEO's RevolvingDoorWatch.
June 17th 2013Trade
A far-reaching trade deal between the US and EU is about to be negotiated, yet the European Commission has drawn a smokescreen over who is setting the agenda for its negotiating position. Amid concerns about the deal's social and environmental impacts, as well as what it will mean for democratic policy-making, Corporate Europe Observatory tried to find out what will be on the treaty table.
June 14th 2013EU in crisis
For the second year running, citizens from around Europe swarmed the German city of Frankfurt, headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB). Their aim: to 'Blockupy' the ECB on its 15th anniversary. A great success in itself, it's also part of a growing movement across Europe against the austerity measures being undemocratically introduced by the ECB, European Commission and the IMF, collectively known as the Troika.
Older entries
Profiting from injustice
A small club of international law firms, arbitrators and financial speculators are fuelling lawsuits by foreign investors against states that cost taxpayers billions of dollars and prevent legislation in the public interest. Emblematic cases include tobacco giant Philip Morris suing Uruguay and Australia over health warnings on cigarette packets, and Swedish energy multinational Vattenfall seeking $3.7bn from Germany following that country’s decision to phase-out nuclear energy. Profiting from Injustice uncovers a secretive but burgeoning legal industry which benefits from these disputes – at the expense of taxpayers, the environment and human rights.
Citizens coalition or industry frontgroup? Covert lobby for shale gas enters European Parliament
On Wednesday 21 November all members of the European Parliament were due in the plenary room of the Strasbourg Parliament headquarters to vote on two reports on shale gas. The day before an exhibition was set up across from the plenary room to convince MEPs that shale gas has no environmental risks and needs no further regulation. What was not visible was that the group co-organising the exhibition and subsequent reception, the Responsible Energy Citizens Coalition (RECC), is a front group for big companies with commercial interest in shale gas development, such as Polish PGNiG.
EU can learn lobbygate lessons from rules elsewhere
“The Dalli case shows the system works,” an EU official told a public debate in Brussels last week, following a question on whether new ethics and transparency reforms will follow the Dalli-gate lobby scandal. The Commission is clearly in denial. The ex-Commissioner's resignation may still be shrouded in mystery, but the need for greater transparency and tighter rules to prevent undue influence could not be more clear. A quick look at lobby transparency systems in Canada and elsewhere can be instructive on this. CEO argues that a more robust, mandatory and better implemented system of lobby transparency in the EU would have prevented an unregistered lobbyist embroiling a high-level policy maker in a cash for access scandal.
Commission should consider dropping EU ETS, say environmental NGOs
The Commission's proposed reforms of the EU Emissions Trading System fail to address its obvious flaw - the ETS is not fit for purpose and should be dropped, according to a coalition of environmental NGOs, including Corporate Europe Observatory, Cuonter Balance and FERN. They argue that the ETS has failed to achieve its own objectives, has generated windfall profits for polluting corporations, and postponed the needed transition from fossil fuels, locking the EU into a carbon-intensive future.
Five demands for change at EFSA
Signed by several European civil society networks and organisations, this list of demands for the reform of EFSA was published on Monday 12 November during a conference of farmers, scientists and citizens held in the premises of Parma's University, Italy, and delivered to EFSA during a demonstration in front of its headquarters the following day. (summary - full version downloadable in the pdf below)
Pages
Corporate Europe Observatory
Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) is a research and campaign group working to expose and challenge the privileged access and influence enjoyed by corporations and their lobby groups in EU policy making.
All content on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
