Press

The city of Brussels is famous for beer, fries, chocolate – and lobbying. On the occasion of its 20th anniversary, lobby monitoring NGO Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) today published its “Lobby Planet”, a guide to the often murky world of EU lobbying.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) yesterday published its new independence policy. Unfortunately, EFSA's new policy generally seems to be holding on to the biggest loopholes from its previous rules. This limits the effectiveness of the improvements that have been made.

The looming mega merger of agribusiness giants Bayer and Monsanto is only the latest example of highly disturbing economic concentration on the global seeds and pesticides markets. A new study published by Corporate Europe Observatory reveals since 1990, the EU Commission has approved nine out of every ten mergers without any conditions.

Top executives at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) have revealed their recommendations to reject demands for more independence from the food industry, ignoring repeated calls from the European Parliament and civil society to close loopholes in the agency’s independence policy.

Almost half of all experts sitting on the scientific panels of the European Food Safety Authority are in a direct and/or indirect financial conflict of interest situation with the agribusiness and food industries, Corporate Europe Observatory's new report “Recruitment Errors” shows.

Dutch and Spanish fishing lobbies have used press passes to access the EU Council building during crucial ministerial negotiations on fishing quotas.

Dutch and Spanish fishing lobbies have used press passes to access the EU Council building during crucial ministerial negotiations on fishing quotas.

The European Parliament plenary today strongly criticised the existing independence policy of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and its weak draft for an overhaul of these guidelines. It fails to introduce an effective cooling-off period for experts to avoid conflicts of interest and neglects the key issue of research funding.

Participants to the 10th Forum for the Future of Agriculture, an annual lobbying event organised by Syngenta and the EU lobby of large landowners, were greeted with a "special" video message, an "Address from His Holiness The Pope". However, the video did not actually come from the Vatican.