Articles

162 civil society organisations from across Europe have called for European trade policy to be made more democratic. Only a democratic and transparent process from its inception has the potential to ensure that trade and investment agreements will benefit all.

The reformed Code of Conduct rules for ex-EU Commissioners chave come into force today, but a slight extension of the cooling-off period is not the big reform that the Commission promised.

The push for reform continues from within the European Parliament, from the Ombudsman’s office and from civil society. This year, two Ombudsman inquiries, a Parliament discussion on the use of transitional allowances to prevent conflicts of interest, and finally, Parliament’s reaction to the Commission proposal for reforming Commissioners’ ethics rules all need to be wrapped up.

Here’s a roundup of the various factors that might push a reform of the revolving-door rules in 2018.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) today gave the first indication of how it will classify foods and crops derived from new genetic engineering techniques.

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The decision of the European Ombudsman to ask the European Central Bank President to end his membership of an opaque and exclusive club dominated by financial corporations is a step towards ending a culture of secretive collusion between regulators and big banks.

91 per cent of meetings held by UK trade ministers (10/2016 - 06/2017) and 70 per cent of meetings held by UK Brexit ministers have been with business, too often big business, interests. This corporate bias in ministerial access is part of an ongoing trend.

Updated analysis released by Corporate Europe Observatory and Global Justice Now exposes how official lobby meetings about Brexit and post-Brexit trade are being dominated by big corporate interests at the expense of civil society and the public interest.