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Mella Frewen, lobby chief at food industry lobbygroup FoodDrinkEurope (previously known as the CIAA) and former Monsanto employee was on the list of 14 potential candidates, from which 7 will have to be selected to replace half of the EFSA management board members this summer. Frewen has been the chief lobbyist at FDE since 2007 where she actively lobbied for instance to allow contamination of the food chain with genetically engineered plants which were not authorised in Europe.

The European Commission's Hugo-Maria Schally kicked off the debate arguing that the 'green economy' is about how societies use 'natural capital'. He considered this agenda to be win-win, with no-one losing out, neither rich or poor countries [watch all the speakers online here].

Luckily MEPs have been more thoughtful, introducing amendments to better regulate the revolving door, as well as on other important topics such as protecting whistleblowers. These revolving door amendments would ban EU officials from going on a sabbatical to become a lobbyist, as well as introducing a one year cooling-off period to prevent senior officials from becoming lobbyists after they leave office.

The CEO/TNI conference “EU in crisis” felt like a reunion, even though many of the people were new. The atmosphere was the same as in 1997, during the activities around the Treaty of Amsterdam, where 50 000 people showed up for demonstrations supporting the Summit from Below. While there was already the beginning of a pan- European movement, who could foresee the European Social Forum, the protests in Prague, Gothenburg and Genoa, or the World Social Forum in 1997?

In recent months, the Parliament has been busy reviewing the report and CEO's RevolvingDoorWatch highlight cases where the EU institutions have failed to take the issue of the revolving door seriously, leaving open the risk that officials and former officials will provoke conflicts of interests when they go through the revolving door between the EU institutions and the lobby industry.

On 31 May the Irish people will take a stance on the Austerity Treaty, aka the Fiscal Compact, in a national referendum. As Ireland is the only country where the Treaty will be tested at a referendum, powerful players are pulling out the heavy artillery to prevent a ‘No’. As if aware that the Austerity Treaty has nothing good to offer, the only card up their sleeve is a high-pitched scare-mongering campaign. All kinds of threats are being used to force a Yes vote.

A solidarity rally to the Irish people was held yesterday in Brussels on the call of Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), la Centrale Nationale des Employés (CNE), Comités Action Europe (CAE) and Ander Europa. Demonstrators underlined their intention to stand with the Irish people against the blackmail operation launched by governments and the leadership of EU to force them to vote in favour of a Treaty establishing austerity as the permanent economic policy in Europe.

During the 5th and 6th of May I was invited to join, as a Grupo 17 de Marzo representative, more than 250 activists including trade unionists, indignados activists, and human rights associations to meet in Brussels for a conference organised by Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO).

The Roundtable on Responsible Soy launched its voluntary certification process in 2006, with the first certificates introduced in 2011. Audits of 10 of the companies certified have now been published online. This briefing by the GM Freeze, Friends of the Earth (England Wales and Northern Ireland) and Corporate Europe Observatory analyses the audits and finds they show little evidence of responsible soy production on the ground.