Press

Brussels, 14 April 2010 – The European Commission's new initiatives to regulate financial markets are based on unbalanced advisory groups dominated by financial services lobbyists, new research published by Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) today shows. This has delayed and undermined the quality of the Commission’s regulatory responses to the financial crisis.

The Germany-based NGO Testbiotech has today filed an official complaint with the European Ombudsman against EFSA, the EU's food safety agency. The complaint targets EFSA's decision to allow Suzy Renckens, head of EFSA'sGMO Unit, to become a lobbyist for biotech giant Syngenta, without any 'cooling off' period or other restrictions. Renckens move to become a leading lobbyist for one of the major biotech companies in Europe implies an obvious conflict of interest.

Aggressive free market approach disastrous for development, demo warns

Brussels:
Campaigners warned today that the European Union’s free market trade policies are savaging poor people and the environment in
developing countries staging an action outside a DG Trade conference in Brussels where senior EU figures were discussing the issue of trade with developing countries [1].

The winner of the Angry Mermaid Award 2009, announced by award-winning writer and journalist Naomi Klein at the UN climate talks in Copenhagen today is the biotech giant Monsanto with 37% of the total vote [1].


Oil giant Shell took second place (18%) in the Award for lobbying to sabotage effective action on climate change, followed by the American Petroleum Institute (14%).


Ten thousand people voted in the Angry Mermaid Award, named after the iconic Copenhagen mermaid who is angry about corporate lobbying on climate change.

Brussels/Copenhagen, 9 December - Business lobbyists have been pushing governments to reject tough targets on carbon emissions cuts, according to a new lobbying guide published today by Corporate Europe Observatory [1].


Making money out of climate change is a four-page guide to some of the business lobby groups active in Copenhagen. It highlights how the UN climate negotiations have become a major target for business groups, keen to see their preferred “solutions” - such as nuclear power, a global emissions market and carbon capture and storage - included on the agenda.

Copenhagen / Brussels, Monday 16 November - The damaging impacts of corporate lobbying on international efforts to fight climate change are exposed today with the announcement of the eight candidates for the Angry Mermaid Award 2009.


The Angry Mermaid Award is named after the iconic Copenhagen mermaid who is angry about the destruction being caused by climate change

The changes to the lobby register announced by Commission today [1] will fix some of the weaknesses in the initial design of the register, but fundamental flaws remain. This means that EU citizens are largely left in the dark about the activities of the more than 15,000 Brussels lobbyists, according to the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU) who called on the European Parliament to secure the necessary overhaul of the register.