Articles

A leaked EU negotiating proposal for the far-reaching free trade agreement with the US reveals the European Commission’s plans to fundamentally change the way regulations to protect consumers, labour and the environment will be adopted in the future.

After the interinstitutional EP-EC working group on the review of the EU lobby Transparency Register had its closing meeting, there is confusion over outcome of EP-EC working group. Was agreement reached between MEPs and Commissioner Šefčovič on making the register mandatory or not?

In the light of the clear risks which the TTIP talks pose to environmental and health protection, it is crucial that the EU's lobby transparency register helps create full visibility around industry lobbying of TTIP talks. Only a mandatory register which requires comprehensive and reliable information about lobbying will shed light on corporate lobby pressure on the TTIP talks.

Law firms are campaigning for exemptions to the EU lobby register and it looks very much as if Commissioner Šefčovič and Rainer Wieland MEP are keen to help them out.

The European Commission has short-listed a Director of the biggest EU food industry lobby group FoodDrinkEurope among the candidates to the management board of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

Is the Commission right to be jubilant about the latest report on the EU Transparency Register? CEO says no, as hundreds of companies and lobby groups actively lobbying to influence EU decision-making, continue to boycott the register.

At a press conference in the European Parliament on 28 November, Professor Gilles-Eric Séralini and Corinne Lepage MEP strongly denounced the decision of the scientific journal Food and Chemical Toxicology to de-publish his study on the health impacts of Monsanto's GM maize NK603 - made tolerant to herbicide Roundup - and of Roundup itself. The study was published over a year ago.