Press

Oil and gas companies from the United States and across Europe have launched an all-out campaign to prevent EU-wide rules for the developing shale gas industry, according to a new report from Corporate Europe Observatory [1]. The fierce battle has included intensive lobbying in the European Parliament and Commission, industry-funded reports, advertisements and websites, designed to show that shale gas does not pose a threat to the environment or to public health, and to promote the fiction that it is a green source of fuel.

The European Commission is deliberately promoting privatization of water services as one of the conditions being imposed as part of bailouts, it has acknowledged in a letter to civil society groups.[1] EU Commissioner Olli Rehn's directorate was responding to questions posed in an open letter concerning the European Commission’s role in imposing privatisation through the Troika in Greece, Portugal and other countries.[2] The civil society groups have today written to Commissioner Rehn to demand that he “refrains from any further pressure to impose water privatisation conditionalities”

Lobby transparency campaigners have filed a complaint with the EU Ombudsman, raising concerns about the European Commission's failure to deal with the problem of Commission staff going through the ’revolving door‘ to jobs in the private sector

The European Court of Auditors (ECA) has sent a highly critical message to four of the EU agencies in a report published today, condemning their failure to manage conflicts of interest adequately.

Brussels, 17 September 2012 – Transparency campaigners say that Commission proposals to tackle the dominance of corporate lobbyists in its advisory groups do not go far enough – and that instead new rules must be introduced to protect the legislative process from corporate capture.

Brussels, 13 September – Lobbyists representing chemical companies and manufacturers of air conditioning equipment, cooling systems, heat pumps and refrigerators from around the world are targeting Brussels in an attempt to block regulation of damaging hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), one of the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the world.

The bank fails to answer the allegations concerning President Draghi’s membership of lobby group, lobby watchdog says

The European Central Bank appears to be in denial, Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) said today, following the Bank’s formal response to the EU Ombudsman, following the complaint submitted by CEO regarding ECB President Mario Draghi’s membership of the Group of Thirty.
 

Industry experts and corporate lobbyists have effectively captured key areas of policy advice within the European Commission, according to new research carried out by the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU) which finds that two thirds of DG Enterprise and Industry's advisory groups are dominated by corporate representatives.

Brussels, 27 June – A formal complaint has been made with the EU Ombudsman concerning the President of the European Central Bank President’s membership of a banking lobby [1].