Economy & finance

Browse our work on the financial industry lobby as well as our analysis of the EU crisis and EU economic governance measures put in place as a response.

Stop the EU’s Services Notification Procedure - municipalities need democratic space to protect the interests of citizens!

November 14th 2018Economy & finance

A coalition of more than 160 civil society groups, unions, mayors and progressive parties running major European cities has come out to oppose a controversial proposed EU directive that has been pushed by business lobbies and would create major new obstacles for progressive municipal policies and initiatives.

How the financial lobby won the battle in Brussels

September 13th 2018EU in crisis, The financial lobby

Corporate Europe Observatory shows how the past ten years of financial lobbying have left us vulnerable to future crises and costly bailouts. Despite their responsibility for the 2008 crash, the financial sector has successfully avoided major reform in the decade since - and has shaped new legislation with big loopholes and conditions similar to those that created the crash in the first place.

Accounting for influence

July 10th 2018The power of lobbies, Economy & finance

We pay our taxes, so why don’t corporations? The Big Four are embedded in EU policy-making on tax avoidance and this report concludes that it is time to kick this industry out of EU anti-tax avoidance policy.

ECB President Draghi’s membership of mega-bankers’ club is “maladministration”

January 17th 2018The financial lobby, The power of lobbies

The decision of the European Ombudsman to ask the European Central Bank President to end his membership of an opaque and exclusive club dominated by financial corporations is a step towards ending a culture of secretive collusion between regulators and big banks.

Is the European Commission preparing a new privatisation push?

November 13th 2017The power of lobbies, Economy & finance

With KPMG compiling an assessment of the “operational and fiscal challenges” of state-owned enterprises for the public purse on behalf of the European Commission, concerns about a new wave of privatisation arise.

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Event

Attac European Summer University (France)

April 6th 2017EU in crisis, The power of lobbies, Water, Climate and energy, Economy & finance, Environment, Food and agriculture, International trade

We will be joining activists, organisations and social movements from across Europe for the Attac Summer University in France.

Event

Paris lobby tour: qui sont ceux qui s’opposent à la justice fiscale (in French)

March 29th 2017The power of lobbies, Economy & finance

Ce lobby tour à Paris vous propose de partir à la découverte des entreprises, institutions financières, firmes d’audit, cabinets de lobbying, associations professionnelles et autres qui contribuent à freiner les mesures pour la justice fiscale, en France et au niveau européen.

Le lobby tour est organisé par CEO, Observatoire des Multinationales, Attac France, ActionAid France, CCFD-Terre Solidaire, Plateforme Paradis fiscaux et Judiciaires.

Brazil’s new government imposes Rio water privatisation to pay for Olympic Games

July 14th 2016Water, Economy & finance

In CEO's December 2015 interview with Renato Cinco, the City Councillor and chair of Rio’s Special Committee on the Water Crisis already warned of privatisation threats. Now, Brazil's “interim” government, signed an emergency loan to the State of Rio de Janeiro to help finance the 2016 Olympics infrastructure - a bailout conditional on the privatisation of the State's public water supply and sanitation company.

Lobbying on the UK referendum: a freedom of information black hole

June 15th 2016The financial lobby, The power of lobbies

In the run up to the UK referendum on EU membership on 23 June, Corporate Europe Observatory has tabled a series of freedom of information requests to find out how UK finance lobbies have been influencing the referendum negotiations and the Capital Markets Union. But the Brexit-Bremain referendum seems to be a freedom of information black hole.