ALTER-EU asks MEP candidates to 'stand-up' against excessive lobbying by big business

At the moment, too many European citizens feel alienated from the decisions made in Brussels. And that is not surprising. Big corporations, lobby consultancies and law firms spend hundreds of millions of euros every year to ensure that EU policy-making meets the needs of big business and not the public interest – and it works. The food industry manages to prevent an EU-wide traffic-light food labelling scheme; the big banks avoid effective regulation; internet firms water down data privacy proposals; climate policies are weakened; the big arms companies grab the research funding; and EU trade deals (like the current EU-US trade deal) consistently put profits before people.

ALTER-EU's campaign will help change this situation. The European Parliament needs members who will stand up for citizens and democracy against the excessive lobbying influence of banks and big business. We will be demanding that election candidates pledge to take action, once elected, to fight on behalf of the public interest.

ALTER-EU's campaign will allow citizens to contact their election candidates directly via an interactive website to ask them to sign the pledge, and will feature campaign events in many countries across the EU.

It is hoped to have participating organisations from across Europe, so please get involved. To find out more, click here. To join the campaign, contact: Nicola@alter-eu.org

And watch this space for more information!