In the complaint, CEO accuses the Commission of secrecy, selective release of documents and failure to fulfill its obligations under EU transparency legislation (Regulation 1049/2001).

The longer term effects of the revolving door between public officials and private sector lobbyists have been graphically illustrated in the wake of the Dalligate lobby scandal, in the case of Michel Petite. Five years on, Petite represents the legal interests of corporate clients to the Commission. Aside from the nutty Commission decision to reappoint him as an ethical adviser on the revolving door, the Petite case illustrates that the upper echelons of political power at the European Commission still don't take the problem of the revolving-door seriously. The EU is seriously lagging behind

Behind a de-regulated financial sector and pro-banking policy decisions, there lies the story of an intimate relationship between the financial sector and the EU institutions. The revolving door phenomenon, which creates a web of interplaying interests between the lobbyists and the lobbied, as one smoothly transitions into the other, is a significant part of this picture.

After repeated freedom of information requests, the European Commission has released two hitherto unknown emails while maintaining its refusal to grant access to other key documents related to the resignation of Mr Dalli. The now released emails between EC Secretary General Catherine Day and Swedish Match had not been included in the Commission’s answers to a long list of MEP questions on Mr Dalli’s resignation to the Commission and OLAF.

Transparency, public health and tobacco control NGOs have today written to EU Commission President Barroso to complain about Commission officials having undisclosed meetings with tobacco lobbyists, in violation of UN rules. The undisclosed meetings are particularly controversial in the context of the Dalligate tobacco lobbying scandal, which led to the resignation of Commissioner Dalli under unclear and contested circumstances.

In an oral hearing at the EU's General Court in Luxembourg on Friday, 11 January 2013, the EU Commission defended its practice of sharing sensitive information with big business lobby groups while withholding the same information from the general public. The hearing took place in the context of Corporate Europe’s Observatory’s lawsuit, suing the EU Commission for withholding information related to the EU’s free trade talks with India.

This month the EU Ombudsman is expected to reach a conclusion on Corporate Europe Observatory’s complaint about the European Central Bank and its President Mario Draghi. It centers on his continuing membership of the Group of Thirty (G30), which violates the Bank's own ethics rules.

Corporate Europe Observatory, alongside Lobby Control and Corporate Accountability International, have today submitted a formal complaint to European Commission President Barroso over the controversial reappointment of Michel Petite to the Commission’s ad hoc ethical committee.

Some investment lawyers have rejected the allegations of "Profiting from Injustice", a report which looks at the role of law firms, arbitrators and third-party funders in the recent boom in lawsuits of foreign investors against states. This blog responds to their defence of the international investment regime, argueing that it is neither fair nor independent, but biased towards the interests of investors.

Almost two months after Commissioner John Dalli resigned, it is still not clear what exactly happened in this tobacco lobby scandal. Commission officials have told Brussels journalists that Dalli had to resign because he held undisclosed meetings with tobacco lobbyists. But if Health Commissioner John Dalli had to resign because of undisclosed meetings with tobacco lobbyists, shouldn’t the same logic apply to high-level Commission officials in Barroso’s cabinet, at the Secretariat-General and other DGs?