To secure a rapid and sufficient supply of vaccines and medicines, the global south has asked for a waiver of intellectual property rights. But despite the gravity of the situation, that is rejected outright by the EU. That should not come as a surprise. A briefing from CEO outlines the EU's traditional role as a staunch defender of big pharma monopolies, and how the push for provisions on 'data exclusivity' in trade agreements with third countries have seeked to undermine even existing flexibility under international rules.

Chemical giant's lobbyists woo MEPs via online wine tasting, just as the battle over pesticides reduction proposed by the European Green Deal heats up. But does this event comply with existing rules on lobbying gifts and events targeting MEPs?

A detailed summary of the findings and conclusions of two extensive reports on research public-private partnerships in the EU: the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) and the Bio-Based Industries (BBI) Joint Undertakings.

Despite strong calls from MEPs and the public, ExxonMobil and its lobby groups mobilise enough behind-the-scenes pressure to stop the European Parliament taking away its lobby badges

A new hotline for anonymous tip-offs about Big Tech lobbying is being launched today. Lobbying campaigns and tactics which either breach the EU transparency’s register code of conduct, or are considered to be an unregulated form of lobbying, can be passed on via the website lobbyleaks.eu.

Big Tech might be the EU's biggest lobby spender by sector, but research by CEO and LobbyControl shows that a little-known band of economic consultancies are still managing to fly under the radar on behalf of their tech clients. These consultancies are effectively 'spamming the regulator' with supposedly neutral reports to influence the EU's competition policy and smooth the path for Big Tech monopolies and mergers. What's worse, the Commission's DG Competition in charge of competition policy enjoys a regular revolving door with these consultancies.

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

EU lobby watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory has warned that the proposals by the President of European Parliament in response to the Qatar-Morocco scandal are inadequate, leave the gate half-open, and don’t come close to ensuring there will be no future scandals. Some of the proposed reforms are promising: the ban on so-called friendship groups with third countries; revolving door rules for MEPs and the obligation for all MEPs to disclose meetings.

We offer you this bird's eye view of Corporate Europe Observatory's activities over the past 25 years, from our foundation in 1997 all the up to the present day. We've dug out a couple of highlights from each year of our existence, though of course, this covers a fraction of our work and what we have achieved. On the one hand, we would love for all the issues CEO works on to be solved. On the other hand, we suspect that, from climate justice to food and agriculture, from public services to health policy, we still have many more years of campaign work ahead of us!

On Monday the 19th the European Council is about to softly kill the main legislative part of the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity strategy in the name of food security. EU ministers and their experts are, at the COP15 in Montreal negotiating an international treaty for bold action to stop the dramatic decrease of biodiversity to be announced on Monday the 19th. But on the very same day their colleagues in Brussels will agree to taking a step which will delay and derail the most meaningful legislative proposal from the European Commission to protect… biodiversity.