A new scandal broke in the UK yesterday, with two former foreign secretaries being caught on camera by undercover journalists appearing to offering their contacts and access in return for payment. The journalists introduced themselves on behalf of a...
With anything between 15-30,000 lobby organisations in Brussels vying for the attention of policy makers, it can often be a challenge just to get a meeting and get your story heard. Which is why it was a nice surprise last December to be contacted...
Popular culture often idealises whistleblowers. They are portrayed as heroes fighting for truth, rights, even life, in battles reminiscent of David and Goliath. They are celebrated as defenders of humanity who should be protected and rewarded for...
European Commission VP Frans Timmermans attended an open group meeting of the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament yesterday (4 Feb), answering questions. MEP Sven Giegold pressed him on the suggested legal basis for the mandatory lobby...
We have blogged here before on the attempt by the European Investment Bank to roll back on transparency commitments when revising its official transparency policy late last year. The revisions include a number of regressive measures, including a...
On November 06 at the European Parliament as part of the Financial Transparency Coalition (FTC), we organized an event on the Capital Requirements Directive IV (CRDIV) that obliges credit institutions and investment firms to disclose key financial...
The LuxLeaks saga moved up a couple of gears last week. First of all, a large number of MEPs broke ranks with their leadership to publicly back a European Parliament committee of enquiry into the so-called ‘sweetheart deals’ that Luxembourg...
The need for speed has led to a number of political innovations, most notoriously the ‘trilogue’ process This opinion piece by Carl Dolan was published in the EU Observer – read it here Conversation overheard between two senior...
This week the global climate change negotiations are kicking off in Lima, Peru. The 196 countries which have signed up to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which includes the EU and all its Member States, will come together to...
