Press

A new report by Corporate Europe Observatory and Observatoire des multinationales, released today, pulls the curtain on the preparation of France's Presidency of the EU, which will start in January 2022. It finds worrying evidence that the Presidency of the Council risks being instrumentalised in favour of a corporate agenda shared by the French government and big business.

The Member of the European Parliament leading the influential energy committee’s work on the future of EU support for major energy projects is pushing the European Parliament to back renewed support for fossil gas - in line with demands of the gas industry – whilst refusing to reveal his meetings with gas lobbyists

New research by Corporate Europe Observatory and LobbyControl shows that Big Tech has spent record sums of money to lobby EU institutions. The report shows that the digital industry now spends nearly €100 million on lobbying, a sum which dwarfs all other lobby spending by the private sector. This lobby surge comes as the EU discusses more stringent regulations on tech companies via the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA). 

New research by Corporate Europe Observatory shows how a behind-the-scenes Council 'working party' which plays a key role in preparing the positions that member states take in the Council on proposed EU laws and policies is offering privileged access to corporate interests.

A new scientific analysis (1) concludes that the European Food Safety Authority's (EFSA) claim that glyphosate is not genotoxic cannot be justified on the basis of manufacturers’ studies. Of the 53 industry-funded studies used for the EU’s current authorization of glyphosate, 34 were identified as "not reliable", 17 as "partly reliable" and only 2 studies as "reliable" from a methodological point of view.

Big business is lobbying for a new EU court that could make member states pay huge sums of public money in compensation to corporations, when they regulate to protect workers, consumers and the environment. The hidden lobby battle is uncovered in a new report published today by lobby watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO).

Corporate lobbyists are fighting an announced EU law that seeks to hold companies accountable for human rights abuses and environmental destruction. This is evident from a new report by Brussels-based lobby-watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), the European Coalition for Corporate Justice (ECCJ) and Friends of the Earth Europe based on dozens of documents obtained through freedom of information requests.        

Lobby Watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) today publishes evidence that the EU Council of Ministers decided its position on patents on covid-19 vaccines (as well as therapeutics and diagnostics) in secret on 20 May, to prepare for ongoing global negotiations on the crucial matter. Despite huge public interest and debate on this issue, MEPs and national parliamentarians were kept in the dark about this discussion.    

Over more than one year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the European Commission has held meetings primarily with representatives of Big Pharma or the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (1) and associated organizations like ‘Global Citizen’. The Commission has listened almost exclusively to this echo chamber which pushes protecting Big Pharma patent rights, despite the way they are exacerbating global vaccine apartheid.