Not long after November's demonstration, EFSA took the initiative to organise a meeting in Brussels with the signatory organisations and the European Commission, in order to discuss the demands. This presented an interesting development in our dialogue with the EU institutions, which to date had seen then generally dismissing the very idea that there could be a problem in the EU food safety system. The meeting took place on 30 January. However, while an unexpected dialogue may have been opened, problems with our food system and the way EFSA regulates it have far from disappeared:

In September last year, CEO submitted four complaints to the Transparency Register's secretariat about entries that broke the rules. We're now facing the two year review of the lobby register, and signs of real political level debate and transformation are not promising. What can the results of our complaints, last year's public consultation on the register and its annual report, tell us about the voluntary lobby register's progress so far? And what is needed to ensure a transformation towards true transparency?

This morning, about 40 activists and concerned citizens handed out flyers to participants to a closed-doors meeting of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health (SCFCAH), gathering representatives of the European Commission and Member States in the Borschette conference centre, rue Froissard 36 in Brussels.

In this open letter to Members of the European Parliament and Member States of the EU, 20 organisations such as the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU), the farmers' union La Via Campesina or the European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsibility ask that the €10 billion budget cut foreseen to the EU' 2014-2020 Research budget (called Horizon 2020) only affect industry subsidies that will mainly go to large multinational companies, not public interest research which is vital for Europe's future.

One of the biggest lobby offensives in recent years has been raining down on Brussels, as American internet giants have taken fright at the prospect of new data privacy laws proposed for the EU. But it turns out that an alarmed Amazon or enraged eBay are aggressive animals, with friends in high places. The result of this massive lobby effort has been revealed by a new crowdsourced lobby transparency project, LobbyPlag, which shows how MEPs have copy-pasted amendments written by IT multinationals directly into the EU’s new data protection law.

A recent documentary on lobbying in the EU, The Brussels Business, highlights the historically intimate links between the EU Commission and European services companies. New research reveals that they are as close as ever, working hand in glove to liberalise and deregulate services markets – from Canada to the ASEAN region, from the US to India.

The decision of the EU Ombudsman on a complaint filed by Corporate Europe Observatory enables the European Central Bank to associate even more closely with the financial lobby. The timing couldn’t be worse.

'For a European Spring' is a call for actions and demonstrations all over Europe on the 13th of March, and for a pan-European demonstration and creative actions in Brussels on the 14th. It targets the EU Spring Summit, where leaders from across the continent will assemble on the 14th and 15 to further strengthen the European Council's neoliberal response to the crisis. Corporate Europe Observatory is one of many groups involved. Read about the activities we're involved in - and those of others.

The European Commission promised MEPs in September 2012 that it would rebalance its advisory 'expert groups', putting an end to the dominance of big business interests. DG Enterprise even set a date: 31 January 2013. However, a short investigation by ALTER-EU shows the Commission has missed its deadline, and in some cases groups have become even more industry dominated. it's now down to MEPs to ensure the Commission produces more than empty promises.

A position statement, entitled "Time to scrap the ETS", has been produced to collectively take a stand against the EU-ETS. It aims to help create space for the end of the ETS to be seen as a feasible political option. More than 30 organisations, including Corporate Europe Observatory, have already supported the document. The signatories call on civil society organisations and movements to endorse it and to join the fight to abolish the ETS.