Articles

'For a European Spring' is a call for actions and demonstrations all over Europe on the 13th of March, and for a pan-European demonstration and creative actions in Brussels on the 14th. It targets the EU Spring Summit, where leaders from across the continent will assemble on the 14th and 15 to further strengthen the European Council's neoliberal response to the crisis. Corporate Europe Observatory is one of many groups involved. Read about the activities we're involved in - and those of others.

The European Commission promised MEPs in September 2012 that it would rebalance its advisory 'expert groups', putting an end to the dominance of big business interests. DG Enterprise even set a date: 31 January 2013. However, a short investigation by ALTER-EU shows the Commission has missed its deadline, and in some cases groups have become even more industry dominated. it's now down to MEPs to ensure the Commission produces more than empty promises.

A position statement, entitled "Time to scrap the ETS", has been produced to collectively take a stand against the EU-ETS. It aims to help create space for the end of the ETS to be seen as a feasible political option. More than 30 organisations, including Corporate Europe Observatory, have already supported the document. The signatories call on civil society organisations and movements to endorse it and to join the fight to abolish the ETS.

In the complaint, CEO accuses the Commission of secrecy, selective release of documents and failure to fulfill its obligations under EU transparency legislation (Regulation 1049/2001).

The longer term effects of the revolving door between public officials and private sector lobbyists have been graphically illustrated in the wake of the Dalligate lobby scandal, in the case of Michel Petite. Five years on, Petite represents the legal interests of corporate clients to the Commission. Aside from the nutty Commission decision to reappoint him as an ethical adviser on the revolving door, the Petite case illustrates that the upper echelons of political power at the European Commission still don't take the problem of the revolving-door seriously. The EU is seriously lagging behind

Behind a de-regulated financial sector and pro-banking policy decisions, there lies the story of an intimate relationship between the financial sector and the EU institutions. The revolving door phenomenon, which creates a web of interplaying interests between the lobbyists and the lobbied, as one smoothly transitions into the other, is a significant part of this picture.

After repeated freedom of information requests, the European Commission has released two hitherto unknown emails while maintaining its refusal to grant access to other key documents related to the resignation of Mr Dalli. The now released emails between EC Secretary General Catherine Day and Swedish Match had not been included in the Commission’s answers to a long list of MEP questions on Mr Dalli’s resignation to the Commission and OLAF.

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 an oral hearing at the EU's General Court in Luxembourg on Friday, 11 January 2013, the EU Commission defended its practice of sharing sensitive information with big business lobby groups while withholding the same information from the general public. The hearing took place in the context of Corporate Europe’s Observatory’s lawsuit, suing the EU Commission for withholding information related to the EU’s free trade talks with India.