Articles

Concerns about excessive bureaucracy, or arbitrary limits being placed on gifts which MEPs can receive, or fears for the careers of MEPs at the end of their term in office, were just some of the disappointing responses when the ALTER-EU coalition gave evidence on the new proposed code of conduct for MEPs on Tuesday night.

Commissioner Antonio Tajani thought he was on the platform at the European Business Summit to talk about the EU's industrial policy – a brief engagement with a not very packed conference hall before rushing off to his meeting with the Steel Association.

In the aftermath of the Sunday Times cash-for-amendments story, a working group of ten MEPs, led by European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek is looking to strengthen MEPs' code of conduct in an attempt to improve public faith in the institution. Just yesterday (23 May 2011), President Buzek told the parliament that: “Our aim is to see what can be done on the code of conduct for outside interests – how rules could be strengthened on certain aspects, for instance regarding access to the EP”. Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) believes it is critical that this working group takes a look at an

Three MEPs were recently caught red-handed after tabling amendments to EU-legislation in return for money. This was a major scandal. But Corporate Europe Observatory has found that it is still standard practice in the Parliament for lobbyists to draft amendments – as this investigation into the Parliament's work on financial reform reveals.

After the intense debate and media attention in the first weeks after the European Parliament's cash-for-amendments scandal broke, it has become very quiet in the last weeks. Discussions about transparency and ethics reforms in the wake of the scandal take place in secrecy in a working group of ten MEPs, led by Parliament President Buzek, in weekly meetings behind closed doors.

I just started work at Corporate Europe Observatory last week as Lobbycracy campaigner. The complex and secret world of the EU institutions is not new to me: afterall I used to work on European trade policy so I'm used to seeing untransparency in action and how corporate lobby interests dominate the thinking of EU institutions.

Climate stole the agenda at the European Business Summit's opening press conference in Brussels, after organisers were forced to invite a representative from Greenpeace onto the platform, following their blockade of the event. The annual lobby forum, which this year has attracted 10 Commissioners, including Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, seems to be giving the climate far less priority this year.

Our friend Ramón Fernández Durán died on May 10 th. Ramón, a Spanish activist and writer, and a co-founder of Ecologistas en Acción, has always been very close to Corporate Europe Observatory. He was a board member and a permanent source of inspiration. We first met in Madrid at the 1994 Alternative Forum “50 Years is Enough – The Other Voices of the Planet” (a mobilisation against the World Bank and IMF) and again in December 1995 at the Counter Summit during the EU Summit.

New rules that could mean cuts to social expenditure, wages and workers' rights are currently being debated in the EU. If the proposals go ahead, decisions about such cuts could be made without public debate or discussion. Cuts would simply be imposed by EU technocrats. Such a decision undermines the very principles of democracy and threatens workers' rights and the welfare state. This has to be stopped!