Trading away democracy with CETA, Polluters in Peru and six translations of report on TTIP & regulatory cooperation

The EU’s Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada could unleash a wave of corporate lawsuits against Canada, the EU and its member states – including through the Canadian subsidiaries of US multinational corporations. This is the result of an in-depth analysis of CETA’s investor rights by Corporate Europe Observatory and 14 other environmental NGOs, citizens’ groups and workers unions from both sides of the Atlantic.

The EU Commission’s proposals on “regulatory cooperation” poses a threat to regulation that protect our health, the environment and our welfare – and they are a threat to democracy. Read the beginners guide from Corporate Europe Observatory, LobbyControl and Friends of the Earth Europe.

 

Now out in English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Greek, Finnish, and Spanish.

LuxLeaks documents recently revealed that the consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has created questionable strategies enabling big businesses to avoid tax payments. Our research now shows: PwC is represented in numerous EU-Expert Groups advising the Commission on tax policy issues. Moreover, the Expert Groups for tax policies are biased. Consultancies and corporate lobbyist are dominating, while other civil society interest groups are under-represented. It is extremely cynical that the Commission gets advices from exactly the same actors that make billions creating tax dodging tricks. We ask Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to finally balance the interests in the Expert Groups of the Commission.

Corporate Europe Observatory welcomes the European Commission’s new Transparency Initiative. Earlier announced transparency obligations on commissioners to publish details of meetings with lobbyists, are now extended to also cover staff in cabinets and directors-general. This is an important step forward in providing greater transparency around the role of lobbying in EU decision-making, but more is needed.

Now that the dust has settled on the hearings of the commissioners-designate in the European Parliament, it is time for some critical reflections on the messy, partisan and in several other ways fundamentally flawed process for appointing arguably the most powerful people in the whole EU infrastructure.

On 29 October 2014, the Barroso Commission authorised the move of its former colleague, ex-commissioner Viviane Reding, to become a member of the board of directors at Nyrstar, an international mining company. Corporate Europe Observatory has a series of concerns about the authorisation of this ‘revolving doors’ move.

With the recent changeover to a new European Commission and Parliament the revolving door between the EU institutions and (big) business is in full swing. Find the latest cases on our RevolvingDoorwatch page.

Sometimes stories in the news can make you wonder who is really pulling the strings. This 10-minute video exposes the role corporate lobby groups have in EU decision-making – who they are, how they get what they want, and how they affect you, and others like you all over Europe, from the food on your plate, to rules for bankers, to the chemicals allowed in everyday products. Watch, learn, and share! French, German and Spanish subtitles available.