Economy & finance

Browse our work on the financial industry lobby as well as our analysis of the EU crisis and EU economic governance measures put in place as a response.

Financial lobby

The ECB’s ‘quantitative easing’ funds multinationals and climate change

12.12.2016

Corporate Europe Observatory has decoded the list of beneficiaries of the European Central Bank’s corporate bond purchasing scheme. The results are disturbing, unless you think oil, fancy cars, motorways, champagne, and gambling are good places to put public money.

NGOs launch petition for tougher rules to block ex-commissioners’ revolving door

10.08.2016

Following the high-level appointment of former European Commission President José Manuel Barroso to Goldman Sachs, NGOs have launched a petition demanding stricter rules for ex-EU commissioners’ revolving door moves.

Water

Brazil’s new government imposes Rio water privatisation to pay for Olympic Games

14.07.2016

In CEO's December 2015 interview with Renato Cinco, the City Councillor and chair of Rio’s Special Committee on the Water Crisis already warned of privatisation threats. Now, Brazil's “interim” government, signed an emergency loan to the State of Rio de Janeiro to help finance the 2016 Olympics infrastructure - a bailout conditional on the privatisation of the State's public water supply and sanitation company.

How the EU pushed France to reforms of labour law

27.06.2016

The current struggle in France over labour law reforms is not just between the Government and trade unions – a European battle is waged. The attacks on social rights stem in no small part from the web of EU-rules dubbed 'economic governance', invented to impose austerity policies on member states.

Bankers win big on UK referendum ballot

15.06.2016

The financial sector has used the threat of Brexit via the UK referendum on EU membership to promote its deregulatory agenda since 2013, according to a new study (1) by Corporate Europe Observatory.

How Cameron delivered victories to Big Finance

15.06.2016

From the day a referendum on UK membership of the EU was first announced in 2013, the financial sector started using Cameron’s re-negotiation process to promote its deregulatory agenda. Sometimes lobbying was required, but more often the UK government did its work for them.

Dangerous Regulatory Duet

18.01.2016

The ongoing EU-US trade negotiations, TTIP, seek to bring rules on both sides of the Atlantic together by means of so-called regulatory cooperation. Our new report with LobbyControl "Dangerous Regulatory Duet" finds that regulatory cooperation procedures have already been used to delay, water down and prevent legislation in the public interest.

Draghi and ECB now even closer to lobbyists from megabanks

13.01.2016

In 2015 the European Central Bank tightened its ethics rules in the wake of a major scandal over privileged information it gave to select financiers. In the future there will be more restrictions on the way the leadership associates with representatives of financial corporations. But the discoveries from the scandal seems to have no bearing on the way the ECB's top brass deals with the quasi-lobby Group of Thirty.

DG FISMA's lobby meetings: corporate bias and access for unregistered lobbyists

17.12.2015

Juncker´s transparency initiative shows only tip of the iceberg

CETA: Verkaufte Demokratie

19.11.2014

Das EU-Kanada-Abkommen CETA könnte eine regelrechte Klagewelle gegen Kanada, die EU und ihre Mitgliedstaaten lostreten – auch durch in Kanada ansässige Tochtergesellschaften von US-Konzernen. Das ist das Ergebnis einer heute veröffentlichten Studie der Investorenrechte im CETA von Corporate Europe Observatory und 14 weiteren Umweltorganisationen, Bürgerbewegungen und Gewerkschaften auf beiden Seiten des Atlantiks.

Water

Leaked memorandum reveals renewed EU attempt at imposing water privatisation on Greece

24.08.2015

The stubborn and aggressive imposition of privatisation by Troika goes against the will of Greek citizens and represents a direct attack on democracy.

Break the chains of Greece’s debt!

29.06.2015

Sign the petition to ‪cancel Greek debt‬