Articles

The European Green Deal (EGD) is a major new plan for the EU that seeks to make its economy 'climate-neutral'. Is the deal really as good as they want us to believe? The fingerprints of industry, and in particular the fossil fuel industry, can be seen all over the EGD. Emissions reductions targets are too modest and too slow, fossil gas is kept as a transitional fuel, and public money will finance industry ‘false solutions’. How did this happen?

Given the upcoming revision of the Tobacco Products Directive, it is high time that the EU meets its obligations to ensure that lobbying by the tobacco industry to influence public officials faces tighter scrutiny and pro-active transparency.

In this seventh episode Vicky Cann from Corporate Europe Observatory and Nina Katzemich from LobbyControl dig into the so-called green credentials of the German Government. They explain how the Government’s ‘love affair’ with gas and its unconditional support for the automobile sector are two clear cut examples of how its EU Presidency, starting today, risks preventing effective climate action by the EU.

Germany will shortly take over the EU Council Presidency at a critical time. A new report looks at the German Government’s record in its own EU decision-making and exposes how time and again it is too close to corporate interests.

Journalist and Corporate Europe Observatory board member Jakub Patočka comments on the conflicts of interest scandals of the oligarch-turned-Czech Prime Minister – and explains how an injection of democracy is also needed at the EU level.

EU Watchdog Radio is a new podcast hosted jointly by Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) and Counter Balance. In the sixth episode Martin Pigeon, researcher and campaigner at CEO and Marine Ejuryan, EU Advocacy manager at ‘Global Health Advocates’ (GHA) explain the content of two in-depth and damning reports they just published; These reports are about how, in the name of innovation, industrial lobbies have managed to control the use of at least 3.6 billion of euro in European public research funds.

EU research funds for helping people living with HIV in Africa so far appear to have only helped Sanofi’s profits.

Corporate Europe Observatory filed a complaint to the Register regarding the inaccurate, low-ball lobby spending figures declared by both Monsanto and its lobby firm FleishmanHillard. In response the Register’s secretariat has now announced it will present new guidelines to make sure registrants will include their lobbying spending at national level if it concerns EU policy-making. This should generate a far more realistic picture of corporate lobby spending in the EU.

A detailed summary of the findings and conclusions of two extensive reports on research public-private partnerships in the EU: the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) and the Bio-Based Industries (BBI) Joint Undertakings.