Corporate
Europe Observatory has just released a critical report on the record of
the European Commission over the last five years. The report sums up the
record of the outgoing Barroso II Commission and how it has interacted
with big business lobby groups during its term.
The critique of the Commission in the
report is damning. The Commission has pursued a corporate agenda, with
little regard for other interests in society. Moreover, the Commission
has fought tooth and nail to avoid effective regulation of lobbyists,
including by opposing a mandatory register and avoiding serious reform
of its advisory structure, with its so-called expert groups dominated by
big business representatives in many areas.
Kenneth Haar, co-author of the report, says:
“The Barroso II Commission is the
European Commission at its worst…. It has used its new powers to impose
policies that fit neatly with the interests of big business. This will
be a term that Europeans won’t forget any time soon. It leaves the
Commission with less legitimacy.”
Olivier Hoedeman, coordinator and co-author says:
“The outgoing Commission leaves a sad
record of putting big business at the steering wheel of a large number
of EU policies. This stresses the urgency for reform.”
Pascoe Sabido, co-author says:
“This report underlines just why the
Commission’s dogged insistence on listening to big business rather than
European citizens is driving people into the streets. On 15 May
thousands of Europeans will be in Brussels to surround the European
Business Summit and send a clear message to our political leaders –
democracy is not for sale at any price.”
Various policy areas are looked at by the report, including trade, climate, finance and agriculture.
The authors state that the Commission’s
Directorate General for Trade has served to open new markets for
business, but all to often to the detriment of ordinary people and the
environment in various regions of the globe. The trade negotiations
between the EU and India have put big business in the driving seat, and
the outcome could jeopardise the livelihoods of millions of people in
India. While granting privileged access to big business, details about
the negotiations have been withheld from the public. Furthermore, the
report discusses how the officials and corporate lobbyists sit together
to discuss how to remove regulations in key markets, such as India.
Similar criticisms are leveled at the
EU-US negotiations over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment
Partnership. Here too, closed door meetings with corporate lobbyists
highlight how big business is been granted privileged access to policy
makers. The report highlights the danger that business lobbyists could
eventually have the power to co-write legislation and bypass democratic
processes.
The authors conclude that the
Commission’s trade and investment policy reveals a bunch of unelected
technocrats who care little about what ordinary people want and
negotiate on behalf of big business.
As for agriculture, the authors conclude
that the Commission has sided with agribusiness on GMOs and pesticides.
Far from shifting Europe to a more sustainable food and agriculture
system, the opposite has happened, as agribusiness and its lobbyists
continue to dominate theBrussels scene.
Consumers in Europe reject GM food, but
the Commission has made various attempts to meet the demands from the
biotech sector to allow GMOs into Europe, aided by giant food companies,
such as Unilever, and the lobby group FoodDrinkEurope. The authors note
links between these concerns and the top echelons of the Commission.
Aggressive lobbying by BASF led to the
authorisation for GM Amfora potato commercial cultivation. According to
the report, conflicts of interest in favour of the biotech industry
within the European Food and Safety Agency led to disputed and heavily
criticised scientific advice being offered on the matter.
The danger is that further approvals for
GMO cultivation could follow because proposals could see biotech
companies having a role in decisions on whether to allow cultivation.
In the report, it is also noted that the
industry is also exerting strong pressure to prevent action by the EU on
endocrine disruptors and pesticides.
The report concludes that the Commission
has eagerly pursued a corporate agenda in all the areas investigated and
has pushed for policies in sync with the interests of big business. It
had done this in the apparent belief that such interests are synonymous
with the interests of society at large.
While the problems noted in the report
have arguably always been present within the Commission, the last five
years have seen a watershed in so far as there has been a concentration
of power in the hands of the Commission and that it is pursuing a more
vigorous corporate agenda with more success than ever before.
The report is a damning indictment of the
conflicts of interest, secrecy, corporate lobbying, lack of
accountability to the public (and the European Parliament) and the
revolving door between decision makers and vested corporate interests. A
deepening of democratic transparency within the Commission is called
for along with a roll back of its powers.
The report’s ultimate conclusion is that
the Commission is a disgrace to democratic traditions in Europe. It is
effectively a captive but willing servant of a corporate agenda.
The full report, including all the policy areas investigated, can be read here: http://corporateeurope.org/sites/default/files/record_captive_commission.pdf
From here (Colin Todhunter)
For more information on the structure and workings of the commission see
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