Corporate Europe Observatory

Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), is a non-profit research and campaign group working to expose and challenge the privileged access and influence enjoyed by corporations and their lobby groups in EU policy making. It is based in Amsterdam and Brussels.^[1]

The team (2010) consists of Belén Balanyá, Olivier Hoedeman, Nina Holland, Erik Wesselius, Yiorgos Vassalos, Martin Pigeon, David Leloup, Pia Eberhardt, Kenneth Haar and Helen Burley. Roel van den Bosch is CEO's financial administrator.^[1]

Activities

Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) carries out research and publishes reports on corporate lobbying activities at the EU and also UN level. Corporate Europe Observatory works in close alliance with public interest groups and social movements in and outside Europe to develop alternatives to the dominance of corporate power.

CEO is one of the founding and lead organisations in the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU). This coalition of over 160 civil society groups, trade unions, academics and public affairs firms is concerned with the increasing influence exerted by corporate lobbyists on the political agenda in Europe, the resulting loss of democracy in EU decision-making and the postponement, weakening, or blockage even, of urgently needed progress on social, environmental and consumer-protection reforms.

In 2010 ALTER-EU published Bursting the Brussels Bubble - the battle to expose corporate lobbying at the heart of the EU. This collection of articles provides an insight into decision-making in the European Union and reveals the tools of the lobbyists trade, which have allowed corporate lobbyists to successfully embed themselves within this process.^[2]

CEO was also one of the main organiser of the Angry Mermaid Award at the UN climate talks in Copenhagen in 2009, awarded to Monsanto and Roundtable on Responsible Soy for lobbying for GM crops as a solution to climate change.^[3]

CEO jointly organises the 'Worst EU Lobbying Awards', which are given to the lobby group which uses "the most deceptive, misleading or otherwise problematic lobbying tactics in their attempts to influence EU decision-making" in a given year.^[4]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "CEO, Corporate Europe Observatory". http://www.corporateeurope.org/aboutceo.html. Retrieved 2010-06-30. 
2. ^ "Bursting the Brussels Bubble". http://www.alter-eu.org/book/bursting-the-brussels-bubble. Retrieved 2010-06-30. 
3. ^ "Angry Mermaid Award". http://www.angrymermaid.org. Retrieved 2010-06-30. 
4. ^ "Worst EU Lobbying Awards". http://www.worstlobby.eu. Retrieved 2010-06-30.