Corporate Europe Observatory

Exposing the power of corporate lobbying in the EU

Who’s scripting the EU-US trade deal?

June 17th 2013Trade

A far-reaching trade deal between the US and EU is 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.

Public Debate: Competitiveness vs. democracy?

June 26th 2013EU in crisis

The EU June summit will focus on the European Commission’s competitiveness agenda which is core component of the plans for a "Genuine Monetary and Economic Union". This competitiveness agenda is geared towards increasing pressure on member states to intensify the competitiveness of their economies.

Complaint forces European Privacy Association to confirm Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are corporate backers

June 18th 2013Lobbycracy

The register secretariat has now informed CEO that the changes introduced by EPA "meet the requirements" and that they have therefore decided to close the case. But while the EPA's updated register entry now discloses its corporate backers, it remains silent about its links with lobby consultancy firms Competere and DCI Group.

Dalligate tobacco lobbyist not screened for conflicts of interest when left Commission

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.

BLOCKUPIED - Again: People from across Europe shut down ECB

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 15^th 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

Official complaint made re. inaccuracies in Transparency Register

Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) submitted four complaints to the EU Transparency Register's secretariat, following an article published illustrating that the register is still incomplete and inconsistent.

Not about safer banks

The European banking union has been presented as a cure to the epidemic of bank collapses. Tougher supervision is to make sure we get the financial sector on track. But in the end, the ambitious new project looks more like a renewed push for a deeper single market. The banks themselves are happy.

After the first round of the expert groups battle

The Parliament has given the Commission one last chance to clean up expert groups. Campaigners say the battle over corporate capture is not over. The European Parliament decided on 19 September, 2012 to lift the block on €2 million (20 per cent) for the Commission's annual budget for its expert groups, the advisory groups set up to assist it in drafting legislation and policies. There are 823 of these groups now in existence.

Study on Monsanto's GM maize intensifies concerns about EFSA's reliability – Monsanto strikes back with PR offensive

Monsanto launched a PR offensive to try to spread doubt about a study published two days ago by French scientist Gilles-Éric Séralini: the study showed that the biotech giant's flagship herbicide, Roundup, and one the GM maizes produced by the firm, NK603, are having disastrous effects on rats' health when those are studied during their lifetime and not over the industry-favoured 90 days.

What was discussed during Commissioner Rehn's meetings with Goldman Sachs? Euro Commissioner has a transparency problem.

Since the start of the eurocrisis, the European Commission has gained significant new powers to monitor and intervene in government budgets at a member-state level in the name of ‘economic governance’. But power must be accountable.

Recent blogs

Complaint forces European Privacy Association to confirm Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are corporate backers

The register secretariat has now informed CEO that the changes introduced by EPA "meet the requirements" and that they have therefore decided to close the case.

Who’s scripting the EU-US trade deal?

BLOCKUPIED - Again: People from across Europe shut down ECB

For the second year running, citizens from around Europe swarmed the German city of Frankfurt, headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB).

MEPs ask serious questions about Commission's tax haven strategy

The Parliamentary Question (PQ) was signed by Nessa Childers (S&D), Sven Giegold and Bas Eickhout (Greens), Sylvie Goulard (ALDE) and Monica Macovei (EPP).

Troika for everyone!

A beginners guide to the EU response to the crisis - on the Troika and the new system of neoliberal economic governance.

File for download below.

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