Press

A new study of the top 50 highest-spenders on EU lobbying based on LobbyFacts data shows that Big Toxics - major chemical industry players - now out-spend Big Tech in their EU lobby firepower.

An unprecedentedly large coalition of politicians from the United States Congress and the European Union Parliament call for an end to fossil fuel industry influence at the UN climate talks weeks before crucial negotiations on the topic in Bonn, Germany.

Most of the 116 recommendations made by special committee (PEST) and voted for by the European Parliament (1) in January 2019, which aimed to make the EU’s pesticides authorization system more transparent and efficient, have been largely ignored by the European Commission and member states, new analysis shows.

A few days before the European Gas and Hydrogen Conference takes place in Vienna a new investigative report by lobby watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) maps Germany's 'brave new hydrogen world'. Which looks a lot like the old world: prolonging fossil fuel use and continuing its extractivist logic. We show who is driving the German – and thus EU – hydrogen hype, who benefits, and the negative impacts for prospective green hydrogen export countries.

For over one year one of the essential parts of the European Commission’s Farm2Fork proposals - the “Sustainable Use of Pesticides Regulation (SUR)” - and its pesticide reduction target of 50% less use by 2030 is under an intensified and fierce attack by parts of the Council and the European Parliament. New analysis published today shows that the opponents use misleading, incorrect and scientifically unsubstantiated claims preventing a factual solution-oriented political discourse. This serves the interests of the pesticide industry, not the needs of society.

BASF is the world’s biggest chemical producer. This profile maps its political access, wider political connections, huge lobby budget, and networks of industry allies that have been its recipe for influencing success. 

A new hotline for anonymous tip-offs about Big Tech lobbying is being launched today. Lobbying campaigns and tactics which either breach the EU transparency’s register code of conduct, or are considered to be an unregulated form of lobbying, can be passed on via the website lobbyleaks.eu.

EU lobby watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory has warned that the proposals by the President of  European Parliament in response to the Qatar-Morocco scandal are inadequate, leave the gate half-open, and don’t come close to ensuring there will be no future scandals. Some of the proposed reforms are promising: the ban on so-called friendship groups with third countries; revolving door rules for MEPs and the obligation for all MEPs to disclose meetings.