Articles & News

In Österreich ist am 16. März ein neuer Film präsentiert worden, der die Macht der Industrielobby in Brüssel beleuchtet. Die Regisseure haben sich schon am Anfang ihres Projektes mit Corporate Europe Observatory in Verbidung gesetzt. Der Film zeigt die Geschichte des Einflusses der Industrielobby in der EU seit den 1980er Jahren. Unserer ersten Arbeit wird darin viel Raum und Aufmerksamkeit gegeben.

The Treaty signed by 25 EU member states on 2nd of March 2012 includes several policy demands made by BusinessEurope. It is the big business lobby's dream come true, but it will put enormous pressure on ordinary people's welfare and living standards.

The strike organised by Belgian trade unions today is a very important statement against the austerity policies that are currently introduced in Belgium and across Europe, causing social injustice and deepening the economic crisis. The unions very clearly emphasise the problematic role of the EU which, as the ABVV-FGTB union states, "forces the member states into a blind austerity policy". The strike happens on the day where EU leaders meet for a two-day summit in Brussels to agree on a new EU treaty that will take further sweeping steps in imposing rigid budget discipline and austerity policies across the continent. Strikes like the one today and other forms of citizens' protests are exactly what is needed to save European welfare states and prevent the crisis from spiralling out of control.

 

The goal of the summit is to assess progress made since the Earth Summit as well as address new challenges. On the agenda will be institutional reform of governance on global environment issues, which could lead to strengthening of UNEP (the French government’s proposal for a World Environment Organisation is not going to happen). The most intense discussion in the preparatory process is around the ‘Green Economy’ agenda promoted by UNEP, a concept that could replace ‘sustainable development’ as the dominant discourse.