Barroso
administration: Golden medal in serving interests
A
research by the Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO)
“Through
the course of the crisis, attempts by corporations and corporate
lobby groups to influence EU policies have probably been more
successful than ever, in part due to a close relationship with the
Commission.”
“Corporate
Europe Observatory has gathered a lot of evidence over time and
covering many different areas that shows how the Commission is easily
captured by corporate interests. This report is an attempt to produce
a condensed version of how the Commission has come to act on behalf
of corporations over the past five years, focusing on climate
policies, agriculture and food, finance, economic, and fiscal
policies.”
7
- The citizens initiative: Mock participatory democracy – an
experiment dead in the water?
Key
findings
“The
way the Commission answered the European Citizens Initiative (ECI) on
the Right to Water is another example of obvious lack of will to
consider alternative visions. The Commission pretended that it had
answered positively to the signatories’ demands, but in reality it
just ignored them, listing already planned activities and pretending
that organising a public consultation which was due to happen anyway
was a meaningful response.”
“...
there is not – in contrast to the US or elsewhere where citizens’
initiatives exist – the possibility of binding referenda or
anything else that would justify the term participatory democracy.
The Commission continues to have the absolute monopoly on making
proposals for EU legislation.”
“The
Commission did commit to promote universal access to water and
sanitation in its development policies, including the promotion of
public-public partnerships, but without providing much detail. The
communication failed to respond to the key demand for new legislation
to exclude water and sanitation from 'internal market rules' and
liberalisation. In spring 2013, a strong public backlash had forced
the Commission to – grudgingly – exclude water and sanitation
services from the concession directive. Water services are not
excluded from trade negotiations (such as the Transatlantic Trade and
Investment Partnership – TTIP) and the Commission failed to act on
the ECI demand to end the liberalisation push once and for all.”
“The
water ECI organisers, also because they were the first to pass the
one million signatories hurdle, got significant media attention for
their demands, but no real change in EU policy. This experience makes
it questionable how motivated other citizens movements will be to
embark on such tremendous signature-gathering efforts. The ECI in its
current form has not brought about participatory democracy in any
real sense, let alone increased democratic control over EU
policy-making.”
Related:
Totally dominant lobbies in a downgraded Europe – (part 6)
Totally dominant lobbies in a downgraded Europe – (part 8)
Totally dominant lobbies in a downgraded Europe – (part 9)
Totally dominant lobbies in a downgraded Europe – (part 8)
Totally dominant lobbies in a downgraded Europe – (part 9)
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