Articles

Some of the candidates put forward to become the new European Commissioners are of concern due to potential conflicts of interest – from share ownership in fossil fuels and finance to overly close relationships with business – and corruption probes, while MEPs complain of a lack of a robust transparency process to properly scrutinise the interests of the Commissioners-designate.

This week EU member states will decide whether to permit the French Government’s decision to ban the food additive E171, pitting well-funded industry lobbyists against public health campaigners who want the ban extended across the EU.

Recent evidence supports widely held suspicions that much larger sums of money are spent by corporations on lobbying than what they declare in their entries to the EU Joint Transparency Register. A report by law firm Sidley Austin, published by Bayer, revealed details of a lobbying contract between lobby firm FleishmanHillard and Monsanto, now owned by Bayer, worth €14.5 million. This is multiple times the lobby spending declared by both companies in the register.

Fertilizer company Yara has been dubbed the Exxon of agriculture due to its thirst for fossil gas. This article looks at the many channels of influence used by Yara and its lobby network, specifically in the European Union (EU).

Why is the EU still building new and unnecessary gas pipelines and LNG terminals? Who’s pushing them and who’s profiting from them?

Platforms like Uber and Airbnb are waging a multifaceted lobbying campaign in Brussels to undermine social and workers' rights - and the Commission in particular, is working to help the platforms evade rules meant, for example, to ensure decent working conditions and access to housing. This report shows how the platforms operate.

The ongoing trade talks between the EU and the US give reason to many of the same concerns as the negotiations on TTIP. The US is looking to weaken EU standards on eg. chemicals, pesticides, GMOs and food. The European priorities include ideas that could undermine US protection levels on medical devices, toys and equipment used at workplaces. 'Conformity assessments' is a much more risky area than it sounds, according to our report 'Trading away protection'.

One year after a landmark ECJ judgment that the EU’s GMO rules should apply to new genetic engineering techniques, industry groups and the US Government are keeping up pressure on the European Union to deregulate, with implications for food and bio-safety, as well as consumer choice.

In preparation for the complicated process of hiring 27 new EU Commissioners, Corporate Europe Observatory presents an outline of the ideal profile of Commissioner candidates.