Articles & News

EPACA, the association of lobbying consultancies, today launched a new round in its campaign to undermine the reputation of lobby watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), in what looks like a desperate attempt to fight tighter transparency and ethics rules for EU lobbyists.

Sixty per cent of EU lobbying consultancies boycott lobby transparency register Almost two years after the European Commission launched a voluntary lobby transparency register, sixty per cent of EU lobbying consultancies are still not registered, a survey published today by the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU) reveals. The coalition has called on EU officials, including the responsible Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, and MEPs to refuse to meet with groups which have not signed the register.

Aquiris is the name of a consortium that was created in 2001 by Veolia Environnement, the biggest water services corporation in the world, and other companies to bid for the building and operation of the North Brussels wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), a €1.2 billion contract. Prior to that, most of Brussels' wastewater was not treated but dumped raw in rivers, an option which is no longer acceptable under a 1991 EU Directive (91/271/EEC) concerning urban wastewater treatment which requires all European cities to treat their wastewater before disposal.