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.
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.
June 19th 2013Climate and Energy, Agribusiness
As the European Parliament this week plans to vote on the Commission's proposed amendments to its agrofuels policy, we look at the range of lobby strategies the industry is employing against the amendments, from front groups and trips abroad for MEPs to scientific disinformation.
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.
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.
Older entries
Budget negotiations: cut industry subsidies, not public interest research!
In this open letter to Members of the European Parliament and Member States of the EU, 20 organisations such as the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU), the farmers' union La Via Campesina or the European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsibility ask that the €10 billion budget cut foreseen to the EU' 2014-2020 Research budget (called Horizon 2020) only affect industry subsidies that will mainly go to large multinational companies, not public interest research which is vital for Europe's future.
It is time the EU scraps its carbon Emissions Trading System
A growing group of civil society organisations is calling on the EU to abolish its Emission Trading System (ETS) to open space for truly effective climate policies. Today they release a joint declaration that highlights the many structural loopholes the ETS is facing, that the proposed reform proposals put forward by EU policy makers will not be able to fix.
Crowdsourced lobby exposé shows Internet giants have footprints on our data privacy laws
One of the biggest lobby offensives in recent years has been raining down on Brussels, as American internet giants have taken fright at the prospect of new data privacy laws proposed for the EU. But it turns out that an alarmed Amazon or enraged eBay are aggressive animals, with friends in high places. The result of this massive lobby effort has been revealed by a new crowdsourced lobby transparency project, LobbyPlag, which shows how MEPs have copy-pasted amendments written by IT multinationals directly into the EU’s new data protection law.
At your service: the European Services Forum’s privileged access to the EU Commission
A recent documentary on lobbying in the EU, The Brussels Business, highlights the historically intimate links between the EU Commission and European services companies. New research reveals that they are as close as ever, working hand in glove to liberalise and deregulate services markets – from Canada to the ASEAN region, from the US to India.
EU Ombudsman launches investigation into Commission’s alleged failure to curb conflicts of interest via the revolving door
The European Ombudsman has launched an investigation into the European Commission's alleged failure to prevent conflicts of interest among staff as a result of the revolving door - where EU staff take up jobs with lobby firms and vice versa.
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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.
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