Lobbying the EU

How vulnerable are the EU institutions to undue corporate influence, and what gaps exist in EU lobbying and ethics rules?

© European Union 2014 - European Parliament. (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons license).

Covert lobbying

Qatargate

Everything you need to know about the Qatargate scandal rocking the European Parliament and the wider issues that this debacle raises.

European Parliament from outside. Photo by Christian Lue on Unsplash

How to close the door on repressive regime lobbying

The Qatargate scandal reveals the shortcomings of lobbying regulation in the EU institutions. Now is the time to act! See CEO's list of proposals to stop repressive regime lobbying.

Photo of Eva Kaili, by euranet_plus, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Qatargate: Time to close the door on repressive regime lobbying

By refusing to adopt rules to detect and prevent repressive regime lobbying, the EU institutions, have opened the door to bribery scandals and manipulation of decision-making.

Image of a protest with two people holding a banner saying "techsploitation is toxic, strike back", photo by Jin Zhu

Uber Files 2: How digital platforms are lobbying to undermine the rights of their workers

As the Council and the European Parliament are discussing a directive to better protect the rights of platform workers, we unpack a new report by Observatoire des Multinationales exposing a lobbying offensive by Big Tech to drastically weaken the legislation.

sharepic podcast 37

Episode 37: Re-launch of LobbyFacts!

Welcome to a new autumn episode of EU Watchdog Radio. In this episode we will discuss the re-launch of one of CEO's flagship initiatives to create more transparency in EU decision making: LobbyFacts.eu. This tool was created by CEO and German sister organisation LobbyControl in 2015 and has now been improved and re-launched.

Google by Matthew Tempest

Lobby transparency

Big Tech now edges out Big Energy in EU lobbying

Brand new analysis by EU lobby data website LobbyFacts has revealed that the companies with the highest-declared lobby budgets have increased their spending by a third since 2015.

Corporate Europe Observatory LobbyControl LobbyFacts.eu How much money have the biggest companies spent on lobbying in last 7 years?

Lobby transparency

A ranking of lobbying activities: Who spends most?

The biggest companies in the EU lobby transparency register have increased their annual EU lobby budget by one third in recent years. Find out more as Corporate Europe Observatory and LobbyControl re-launch their EU lobby data site LobbyFacts.eu

Corporate Europe Observatory LobbyControl LobbyFacts.eu Research examples: Revolving doors Over 70% of Google’s and Meta’s lobbyists have formerly worked for governmental bodies at the EU or member state level.

The revolving door – from public officials to Big Tech lobbyists

Around three quarters of Google’s and Meta’s lobbyists have formerly worked for EU governmental bodies. Check out our new story using data from LobbyFacts.

Corporate Europe Observatory LobbyControl LobbyFacts.eu Researching with LobbyFacts: What do you mean, dodgy data? Today LobbyFacts.eu shows that 71% of registrants declaring the highest annual lobby spending in the EU lobby register are implausible. Image of a scary clown

Lobby transparency

Complaint to EU lobby transparency register

Corporate Europe Observatory and LobbyControl have written to the EU lobby transparency register to complain about hundreds of instances of implausible data, as exposed by LobbyFacts.eu

Neelie Kroes

Kroes-ing through the revolving door

The Uber Files have reignited concern about the revolving doors move by Neelie Kroes, Digital agenda Commissioner until October 2014, to Uber. Get the low-down here.

Uber, Airbnb and the European Commission

Uber: an EU lobby profile

Uber, currently dominating news headlines around the world, is a regular visitor to the European Commission’s Berlaymont building in Brussels. Read on for the low-down on Uber’s EU lobbying.

Inside job deregulation small

Inside job

Find out how a proposed EU law that seeks to hold companies accountable for abuses in their supply chains has been watered down by corporate lobbyists, with assistance from the EU's business-friendly ‘Better regulation’ agenda.

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