Ombudsman Complaint on EBFTP

Swedish environment minister Lena Ek last week came under fire for her role in the European Energy Forum (EEF), a cross-party group of MEPs which is funded by large corporations such as Shell, Nord Stream and Vattenfall. Ek, who acted as vice-chairman of the EEF during her time as an MEP, had failed to formally withdraw from her EEF role when she became environment minister.

Transparency, public health and tobacco control NGOs have today written to EU Commission President Barroso to complain about Commission officials having undisclosed meetings with tobacco lobbyists, in violation of UN rules. The undisclosed meetings are particularly controversial in the context of the Dalligate tobacco lobbying scandal, which led to the resignation of Commissioner Dalli under unclear and contested circumstances.

In June 2007, Global Forest Coalition, Corporate Europe Observatory and Friends of the Earth Europe organised four days of events on agrofuels, including debates in the European Parliament and the Dutch Parliament. Fifteen representatives from Southern organisations and movements were in Europe to testify on the impacts that EU agrofuel policy will have on their countries.This report is a record of their testimonies.

The UK's House of Lords has recently published a report saying that the financial transaction tax proposed by the European Commission is flawed, yet, as CEO's report on the lobbying around the tax revealed, many of the peers involved in the report have been identified as having conflicts of interest, so questions should be raised about their neutrality.