Articles & News
Today, 28 September 2011, the European Parliament votes on six legislative acts on "economic governance", also known as the "six-pack on economic governance". Corporate Europe Observatory, together with other European public interest organisations and trade unions calls on MEPs to reject the six proposals, and to join forces with social movements in our attempt to set Europe on a new course, a course of democracy, welfare and social rights.
Corporate Europe Observatory has written to the European Parliament's College of Quaestors (the body responsible for administrative matters regarding the running of the Parliament) to question why the Kangaroo Group has an office in the Parliament building. The Kangaroo Group is not a registered Intergroup, nor does it appear to have any other official status vis-a-vis the European Parliament.
Three MEPs were recently caught red-handed after tabling amendments to EU-legislation in return for money. This was a major scandal. But Corporate Europe Observatory has found that it is still standard practice in the Parliament for lobbyists to draft amendments – as this investigation into the Parliament's work on financial reform reveals.
Our friend Ramón Fernández Durán died on May 10th. Ramón, a Spanish activist and writer, and a co-founder of Ecologistas en Acción, has always been very close to Corporate Europe Observatory. He was a board member and a permanent source of inspiration. We first met in Madrid at the 1994 Alternative Forum “50 Years is Enough – The Other Voices of the Planet” (a mobilisation against the World Bank and IMF) and again in December 1995 at the Counter Summit during the EU Summit.
New rules that could mean cuts to social expenditure, wages and workers' rights are currently being debated in the EU. If the proposals go ahead, decisions about such cuts could be made without public debate or discussion. Cuts would simply be imposed by EU technocrats. Such a decision undermines the very principles of democracy and threatens workers' rights and the welfare state.
This has to be stopped!
Emissions trading is the European Union’s flagship measure for tackling climate change, and it is failing badly. In theory it provides a cheap and efficient means to limit greenhouse gas reductions within an ever-tightening cap, but in practice it has rewarded major polluters with windfall profits, while undermining efforts to reduce pollution and achieve a more equitable and sustainable economy. The third phase of the scheme, beginning in 2013, is supposed to rectify the “teething problems” that have led to the failures to date.
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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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