Articles

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.

BBI is a public-private partnership between lobby groups representing the agribusiness, forestry, biotechnology, chemical, and fossil fuel industries on the one hand, and the European Commission’s DG Research & Innovation, ostensibly to help build a “sustainable low-carbon economy”.

This report asks whether the IMI’s health research truly delivers tangible benefits for citizens, such as better access to health innovations, or whether it is rather focused on enhancing the competitiveness of the largest pharmaceutical corporations.

Regulatory authorities worldwide rely on the certified standard of "Good Laboratory Practice" (GLP) for authorising chemicals. This standard provides for strict documentation requirements and regular internal and external controls. However, the fraud scandal involving a GLP-certified German contract laboratory shows that this trust is unlikely to be justified.

As governments take action to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and prevent economic collapse big law firms urge corportions to challenge governments' emergency measures in order to defend its profits. In a parallel corporate justice system called ISDS states could soon face multi-million dollar lawsuits.

We zoom in Shell's promises of becoming a net-zero company by 2050 using the full toolbox of false 'solutions': gas, CCS, carbon markets and ‘natural climate solutions’. With millions spent on lobbying and privileged access to EU decision makers, Shell's rhetoric is hoping to distract from the reality of its commitment to increase oil and gas production