Press

Authoritarian politicians look set to do well in the European Parliament elections on 26 May 2019. Corporate Europe Observatory new report offers a comprehensive overview of and shocking insights into the authoritarian right across the EU, as hundreds of millions of European citizens prepare to cast their vote.

Chemical company Bayer last night suspended its contract with Brussels’ biggest lobby consultancy firm FleishmanHillard.

Pharmaceutical industry lobbying in Brussels is blocking any solution to the growing problem of extremely high medicine prices in Europe, a new report by Corporate Europe Observatory reveals. The crisis of affordability that has long plagued health care systems in the Global South has reached the European Union, as the industry’s profit maximisation logic is becoming deeply embedded in EU regulation.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) today ruled that provisions for investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS, rebranded as ICS - Investment Court System) in the EU-Canada trade deal CETA are compatible with EU law.

European Commission plans to reform the EU Services Directive have quietly collapsed. This is really good news for local democracy in Europe.

In the final plenary session of this legislature, the European Parliament today passed the EU’s General Food Law reform. Its requirement for the publication of toxicity data used in EU food safety assessments is a huge transparency win.

Almost 100 Members of the European Parliament have seized the momentum of the EU election countdown to improve the EU Council Presidency: In an open letter to Finland’s Prime Minister Juha Sipilä, they demand lobby transparency be placed at the heart of the upcoming Finnish EU Presidency.

Ahead of a looming Brexit, European Parliament elections, and a new EU Commission, Corporate Europe Observatory’s new report “Captured states: when EU governments channel corporate interests” shows how EU member states commonly act as middlemen for corporate interests at the EU level.

Fresh opposition has been voiced against a highly controversial EU policy negotiation overseen by the new Romanian EU Presidency in the coming weeks: 160 mayors, parties, trade unions and NGOs, including Corporate Europe Observatory, today wrote to the Presidency to underline their strong concerns about the ‘Services Notification Procedure’.