Press

Yesterday's revelations in The Guardian, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Le Monde, and others, illuminate the laissez-faire approach of the European Commission to revolving doors, conflicts of interest, privileged access, and corporate capture.

The European Commission presented today its long awaited proposal for a regulation to reduce pesticide use in Europe in order to avoid ecosystem collapse. The proposal  has been given a cautious welcome by food and farming  groups today. Campaigners see it as an urgent and welcome first step, but more is needed to put Europe on the path to a sustainable and healthy food system and protect the health of farm workers, citizens and the environment.

Almost two years after lobby watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) filed Freedom of Information (FOI) requests concerning the Covid-19 vaccine contracts and negotiations between the EU and pharmaceutical companies, the European Commission has published a final batch of 275 documents.

A week ahead of the planned publication of the “EU Nature Protection Package”, and with rumors of a second delay persisting, 24 European environment and health groups, farmer organisations and farm worker trade union jointly call on the EU Commission to maintain its ambition and introduce strong and binding targets to avoid the EU Green Deal being further undermined.

The European Commission’s proposal on human rights obligations of companies bears damaging marks from a successful business campaign, a new report said.

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) decided to maintain the existing classification of glyphosate: toxic to aquatic life but still no classification as a carcinogen, despite of even stronger scientific evidence than in 2015 when WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic to humans". The "Ban Glyphosate" NGO coalition strongly rejects ECHA’s conclusion that “available scientific evidence did not meet the criteria to classify glyphosate for specific target organ toxicity, or as a carcinogenic, mutagenic or reprotoxic substance”.

The EU’s 300 billion euro response to the growing energy crisis presented by the Commission today, which emphasized ‘eye-blinding ambitions’ for energy efficiency and investments in renewable energy production, should not distract from the fact that the fossil fuel energy companies managed to get their future business secured as well. The announced EU Energy Platform for joint purchases of gas, LNG and hydrogen, which will also identify new gas infrastructure needs, was revealed by Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) to be advised by the gas industry, a huge conflict of interest.

On the eve of the launch of RePowerEU, a new report commissioned by lobby watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) and Transnational Institute (TNI) has found that the EU’s plan to drastically increase the use of renewable hydrogen (H2) is not realistic, and will hurt North African countries' economy.

Lobby watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) has obtained recent meeting documents from the European Commission (EC) that reveal that major fossil fuel companies are influencing the EU’s response to the energy crisis.