‘Black rocking the European Green Deal’ is the title of this fourteenth episode, in which CEO researcher Kenneth Haar and Jana Leutner researcher at Change Finance, discuss the Blackrock scandal. Together they published a report called “The BlackRock Model”, in which they uncover the scale of the blunder of the European Commission by granting a contract to BlackRock to give advice on ‘sustainable finance’.

The European Commission did not properly consider conflicts of interest when it granted a contract to BlackRock - a big investor in fossil fuels - to advise on the EU’s new sustainable finance agenda for banks, according to a Decision by the European Ombudsman published today (1). The complainant, the Change Finance coalition, believes the Commission should now drop the contract and start afresh.

The Commission ignored massive conflicts of interest when it hired the world’s biggest asset management fund to investigate the best way to make banking sustainable. “The BlackRock Model”, a report from CEO and Change Finance uncovers the scale of the blunder, and explains why the Commission needs to find a new approach to ‘sustainable finance’.

In this new episode we discuss how it's possible that European taxpayers money contributes to violations of human rights. Xavier Sol, director at Counter Balance discusses the role of the European Investment Bank (EIB) outside of Europe and the bank’s intention to become the ‘EU Development Bank’.

Friends of the Earth Europe, CEO, Greenpeace and Food and Water Europe are hosting a public debate questioning how the EU will protect Europe from fossil fuel lock in, with a focus on the case of gas and the Ten-E regulation.

An outcry from city governments has helped shelve the European Commission’s power grab over services. The Commission has failed to install a Services Notification Procedure, which would have given it advance veto power over new laws by regional and local governments, and could have further limited local democratic initiatives in areas as varied as affordable housing, energy supply and waste management.

Will the German Government use its EU Presidency to prioritise tax transparency? Time is running out to take action.

In this new EU Watchdog episode we discuss why and how it is possible that the European Parliament and ministers of Agriculture recklessly decided this week - under influence of the powerful agro-chemical lobby to go for the destructive status quo on European agriculture. Also we hear about the latest international scientific position on the needed paradigm shift when it comes to agriculture and food systems. And we hear from the perspective of farmers already practicing the sustainable farming methods.

Seven years after the adoption of new EU Staff Regulations – the rules that govern all EU institution staff – a new publication by Corporate Europe Observatory reveals that the rules to handle revolving door cases of EU officials are being poorly implemented.

Several recent revolving door scandals show the weakness of EU staff rules on public officials taking up roles – particularly lobbying roles – in the private sector. Only one in two hundred applications for employment during the notification period or while on leave are rejected by the Commission services.