The power of lobbies

Brussels is at the centre of EU decision-making and as such attracts thousands of lobbyists promoting the interests of big business. In this section you can find basic information about this corporate lobbying and how it affects you as a citizen. Or you can visit our specific pages on the revolving door phenomenon of politicians who become lobbyists – and vice versa – and on the corporate dominance of expert groups whose advice helps make official policy for the EU.

If you want to investigate corporate lobbying, we have put together a list of online tools that can help.

Shutting down ePrivacy: lobby bandwagon targets Council

June 4th 2018The power of lobbies
Industry lobbyists who want to continue monetising users’ online data are battling against new ePrivacy regulations, targeting EU member states in the Council. And some member state governments are only too happy to help.

JEFTA: An exclusive trade between EU negotiators and big business

May 28th 2018The power of lobbies, International trade
The EU member state vote on the EU-Japan trade agreement is close, but not all interest groups had an equal say when the deal was hashed out. Official figures from the European Commission show that big business had many more meetings with the EU trade negotiators than small businesses, trade unions and other civil society actors did.

Plastic promises

May 22nd 2018The power of lobbies, Environment
The plastics industry mounted a significant lobby campaign to influence the European Commission’s recent Plastics Strategy. Industry is now seeking to unpick or undermine key elements of the strategy through lacklustre or non-existing voluntary commitments, or outright opposition. With the Commission likely to publish its proposal to tackle single-use plastic products any day, will it adopt an ambitious approach towards binding regulations on industry?

Post-scandal Facebook: will the EU stop treating the tech giant as a trusted partner?

May 21st 2018Revolving doors, The power of lobbies
Following the Cambridge Analytica affair and the massive leak of 87 million people’s data revealed earlier this year, Facebook is facing unprecedented scrutiny of its business model. Regulators must stop treating the social media giant as a trusted partner and better protecting EU citizens' digital rights.

UnFairbnb

May 2nd 2018The power of lobbies
AirBnB and its allies are lobbying the EU to fight measures to protect affordable housing in cities across Europe. Our new report “UnFairbnb” looks at the way in which their Brussels lobbying undermines cities’ ability to regulate the AirBnB model for holiday rentals.

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Corporate capture in Europe

September 24th 2018Revolving doors, The power of lobbies

Excessive corporate influence over policy-making remains a serious threat to the public interest across Europe and at the EU level, warns a new report by our partner organisation ALTER-EU.

The Czech Trump: how prime minister Babiš undermines democracy - Jakub Patočka

August 23rd 2018The power of lobbies

The political climate in the Czech Republic has grown increasingly repressive following the election of oligarch Andrej Babiš as prime minister in October 2017. With the Czech civil society space squeezed tighter and tighter by Babiš's government, we want to help draw attention to the duress and threats under which many progressive organisations and media outlets now have to work. In the following interview, our Czech board member Jakub Patočka explains what is at stake in the country as targeted defamation campaigns and funding withdrawals risk to make the work of critical NGOs and newspapers increasingly difficult.

EU steps back from Trump & Polluters at UN climate talks

May 14th 2018The power of lobbies, Climate and energy

Thanks to bottom-up pressure the European Union stepped back from supporting Trump and his big polluters’ agenda, but fell short of backing calls for a conflict of interest policy at the UN climate talks.

Trump & Fossil Fuels or People & Planet at UN climate talks

April 30th 2018The power of lobbies, Climate and energy

Tackling conflicts of interest at the UN climate talks is up for negotiation: should fossil fuel interests be allowed to participate at these conferences, or even in climate policy-making in general?

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