The European Ombudsman has re-opened an inquiry on how the European Commission (EC) has dealt with transparency requests by lobby watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) for public access to documents concerning the negotiations for the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines. Despite promises made by the Commission last year, the negotiations are still shrouded in opacity and instead of improvement there now seems to be a regression. After a complaint by CEO in January Emily O'Reilly, European Ombudsman, wrote a letter to the Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, expressing

As the European Parliament prepares to vote this Thursday on the Digital Services Act (DSA), new research by CEO shows that intense corporate lobbying by Big Tech contributed to the EU co-legislators abandoning their original call for a phase out to a ban of surveillance advertising (involving intensive user tracking and profiling). This week’s vote is crucial as it provides a final opportunity for the Parliament to reverse this position before it starts trilogue negotiations with Council and Commission.

Despite the EU's talk about regulating the digital sphere , we uncover how Big Tech has successfully waged a major lobbying campaign to prevent a ban on their extremely profitable model of intrusive surveillance advertising . However MEPs still have a chance to turn some of this around.

A Presidency prepared in close collaboration with the French corporate sector which is setting a policy agenda that strongly reflects business demands.That is the verdict of Corporate Europe Observatory and Observatoire des multinationales in their new report “Under the influence: the distorted priorities of the French EU Council Presidency”, published today, in the run up to the start of the French Presidency on 1 January.

In January 2022, France will take on the rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU. Yet this Presidency has been prepared in close collaboration with the French corporate sector, and is setting a policy agenda that strongly reflects business demands. It looks set to be a captured presidency.

Emmanuel Macron has announced France's priorities for its rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first half of 2022. But all signals indicate that the EU is on the road for more corporate capture of policy-making instead of less.

In the run up to the World Trade Organisation summit in December 2021, negotiations over a waiver of patents on COVID-19 medical products are entering a crucial stage. The waiver, so far blocked by the EU, is desperately needed to scale up global production of vaccines to help the world get out of the pandemic. Unfortunately the EU’s policies for getting these medicines on the market – the Therapeutics Strategy – pays no attention to securing global access and affordability.

As the EU rolls out its 'Therapeutics Strategy' for a range of new COVID-19 treatments, it fails to do what's needed to make these life-saving medicines accessible and affordable for the world's poorest. The EU is repeating the same mistakes it made with COVID vaccines, which remain out of reach for the large majority in low-income countries. This is the conclusion of new research by Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) 'Bitter pill: How the EU's defence of pharma profits could keep COVID treatments out of reach for millions'.

Rejected by the climate justice movement, the final COP26 text mirrors the agenda of rich developed countries and their oil and gas industries.

At least 503 fossil fuel lobbyists have been granted access to COP26, flooding the Glasgow conference with corporate influence.