Take a virtual tour of the EU lobby world
Who influences decision-making in the European Union? And how? Welcome to the complex and often shady realm of corporate lobbying, which you can now tour from the comfort of your sofa. Or while queuing for frites. Or even on the go in Brussels, following the virtual route on foot!
Hosted by Counter Balance and based on Corporate Europe Observatory’s latest edition of the Brussels Lobby Planet guide, the new virtual lobby tour takes you straight to the heart of the ‘Brussels bubble’, which is home not only to the main EU institutions but also to a lobbying industry worth far beyond 1 billion euro a year.
Here, an estimated 25,000 lobbyists vie for the attention of politicians, try to undermine their opponents and push the interests of their - mostly corporate - employers.
Big business has the greatest financial firepower in the ‘Brussels bubble’, as well as the most staff and controversially high, privileged access to EU politicians and officials. All too often this means public interest policy-making loses out to policies prioritising private profits, as civil society groups find themselves with much smaller budgets, fewer staff and significantly less access to decision makers.
To keep the corporate lobbies in check, greater lobbying transparency and stricter rules are as important as public scrutiny. The new virtual lobby tour helps to inform people, raises awareness of corporate EU lobby actors, their tactics and targets, provides many examples and a dedicated section on the gas lobby.
Take the tour here now!
And for a complete guide on the world of lobbying in Brussels, get our Lobby Planet.
More about the civil society campaign for a better Transparency Register: www.alter-eu.org
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