Articles

Yesterday Corporate Europe Observatory published a leaked document which carried a specific proposal from the European Commission on how to deal with “regulation” in the TTIP negotiations (the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, a trade agreement being negotiated between the European

Yesterday's meeting between the European Commission, Parliament and Council to decide on F-gas legislation was the disappointing end to a two-year lobby battle. The EU's discussions over potential bans on F-gases – powerful greenhouse gases known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), used in refrigeration and air conditioning systems – are a textbook case of how a concerted lobbying campaign by a polluting industry can weaken legislation desperately needed to fight the climate crisis.

Very soon, the ministers of all EU countries will decide whether Pioneer's GM maize (technical name 1507) will be allowed to be grown in Europe. We are calling on you to take action now!

As U.S. and EU trade officials meet in Washington this week for a third round of negotiations on the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement, nearly 200 environmental, consumer and labor groups have urged EU and US officials not to include an investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism in the deal. Corporate Europe Observatory is one of these groups.

A leaked EU negotiating proposal for the far-reaching free trade agreement with the US reveals the European Commission’s plans to fundamentally change the way regulations to protect consumers, labour and the environment will be adopted in the future.

After the interinstitutional EP-EC working group on the review of the EU lobby Transparency Register had its closing meeting, there is confusion over outcome of EP-EC working group. Was agreement reached between MEPs and Commissioner Šefčovič on making the register mandatory or not?

In the light of the clear risks which the TTIP talks pose to environmental and health protection, it is crucial that the EU's lobby transparency register helps create full visibility around industry lobbying of TTIP talks. Only a mandatory register which requires comprehensive and reliable information about lobbying will shed light on corporate lobby pressure on the TTIP talks.

Law firms are campaigning for exemptions to the EU lobby register and it looks very much as if Commissioner Šefčovič and Rainer Wieland MEP are keen to help them out.

In October, the New York Times published an in-depth article on the Brussels lobbying of US law firms such as Covington & Burling, Hogan Lovells and Baker Botts. The article describes how these firms are lobbying on behalf of large US-based multinationals to weaken EU environment and health standards, and how they have hired several former Commission officials while refusing to join the EU’s voluntary lobby register.