Lobbying the EU

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

Dalligate: Smokescreen or smoking gun?

25.10.2012

Over the last week an increasingly unclear and fraught picture of a major European lobbying scandal has been unfolding. “Dalligate” or “snusgate” has been heralded as “the biggest tobacco industry interference in public health policy at the European level”, and led to the unprecedented resignation – or maybe dismissal - of Maltese Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy, John Dalli. Given the Commission's normally relaxed attitude to industry lobbying, this was surprising. In fact, this is the first time a Commissioner has been removed over a lobby scandal.

A wake-up call for the Commission – lobbyists exploiting privileged access

17.10.2012

The resignation of the EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy John Dalli highlights the need for stronger measures to regulate EU lobbying to rule out the risk of privileged access and political corruption in EU decision-making. CEO outlines the need for the Commission to take action in five areas to tackle privileged access and prevent corruption.

Official complaint made re. inaccuracies in Transparency Register

28.09.2012

Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) submitted four complaints to the EU Transparency Register's secretariat, following an article published illustrating that the register is still incomplete and inconsistent.

After the first round of the expert groups battle

24.09.2012

The Parliament has given the Commission one last chance to clean up expert groups. Campaigners say the battle over corporate capture is not over.

The European Parliament decided on 19 September, 2012 to lift the block on €2 million (20 per cent) for the Commission's annual budget for its expert groups, the advisory groups set up to assist it in drafting legislation and policies. There are 823 of these groups now in existence.

Big banks

What was discussed during Commissioner Rehn's meetings with Goldman Sachs? Euro Commissioner has a transparency problem.

18.09.2012

Since the start of the eurocrisis, the European Commission has gained significant new powers to monitor and intervene in government budgets at a member-state level in the name of ‘economic governance’. But power must be accountable.

Climate sceptics launch Citizens Initiative to suspend EU climate targets - who's paying?

23.08.2012

Earlier this month the European Commission gave a green light for the ninth European Citizens Initiative (ECI) – a proposal to “Suspend the 2009 EU Climate & Energy Package”, the EU’s plan for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 20% and to increase the use of renewable energy by 2020. The organisers can now start collecting the one million signatures needed for the Commission to consider their proposal.

Better control of EU revolving door needed

25.07.2012

The revolving door has been in the headlines again in recent weeks with the speedy departure of a top official from the EU's medicines agency to a prominent law firm. Such moves, known as going through the revolving door, can allow the private sector to 'capture' or unduly influence the work of the public sector and it is vital that all public authorities including the EU agencies and the European Commission take this threat seriously.

When business and politics intertwine

23.07.2012

It seems as if barely a week goes past these days without a high-level summit taking place in Brussels to discuss issues relating to the euro-zone crisis. Much has been said about the roots of the crisis but no one can deny that in the background is the lack of trust that people have in their national politicians and European institutions.

EU Research funds: a €20 billion gift to industry!

13.07.2012

Research funding is a hot topic these days between the European Parliament and member states, who are negotiating amendments to the draft text published in November 2011 by the European Commission. As things stand, the new round of research funding for 2014-2020 would add up to a whopping €86 billion euros, making it the largest EU budget after farm subidies and structural funds for regional development.

Severin: time for action

10.07.2012

It is now 16 months since the cash-for-influence scandal rocked the European Parliament and led to the resignation of two MEPs (Ernest Strasser and Zoran Thaler). A third MEP, Adrian Severin of Romania was sacked by the Socialist group but refused to resign from the Parliament. After the scandal, MEPs developed a new Code of Conduct aimed at preventing this from happening again, but it only came in on 1 January 2012 and cannot be applied retrospectively. So what happened next to Severin?

The MEP code of conduct: six months on

02.07.2012

“The new code of conduct will be a strong shield against unethical behaviour.”

Danish Parliament takes steps towards lobbying transparency

29.06.2012

In the near future, we might see a mandatory register in Denmark. But there are obstacles and pitfalls.