It is quite incredible that the unelected bureaucrats of the EU
Commission are even entertaining such an idea as the deeply unpopular
TTIP trade deal amid huge citizen protest whilst already facing multiple
episodes of social, political and economic unrest and crisis as the
demise of the European project gathers pace.
 |
| TTIP: A secret and bad deal |
The EU is experiencing extensive political threats and upheaval from
left and right of centre political groups angry at EU imposed austerity.
Greece is being raped by its so-called partners and it is just one of
several other EU states en-route to ruin.
The declining global economic picture provides all the more reason
for the corporations to look for new avenues of revenue. But which
businesses are pushing most for the proposed EU-US trade deal TTIP? And
who is really influencing EU negotiators? And just how are the rights of
European citizens represented in the biggest trade deal in history?
Just in Brussels alone, there are now over 30,000 corporate lobbyists, shadowy agitators as The Guardian
puts it, who are responsible for influencing three quarters of
legislation in the EU. But even they are left in the shade when it comes
to the power being afforded to corporations in the TTIP negotiations.
The US Chamber of Commerce, the wealthiest of all US corporate
lobbies, and DigitalEurope (whose members include all the big IT names,
like Apple, Blackberry, IBM, and Microsoft) are there.
BusinessEurope, the European employers’ federation and one of the most powerful lobby groups in the EU are there.
Transatlantic Business Council, a corporate lobby group representing
over 70 EU and US-based multinationals. ACEA, the car lobby (working for
BMW, Ford, Renault, and others) and CEFIC, the Chemical Industry
Council (lobbying for BASF, Bayer, Dow, and the like) are all there.
European Services Forum, a lobby outfit banding together large
services companies and federations such as Deutsche Bank, Telefónica,
and TheCityUK, representing the UK’s banking industry are there as are
Europe’s largest pharmaceutical industry association (representing some
of the biggest and most powerful pharma companies in the world such as
GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Astra Zeneca, Novartis, Sanofi, and
Roche).
FoodDrinkEurope, the biggest food industry lobby group (representing
multinationals like Nestlé, Coca Cola, and Unilever) are sitting at the
negotiating table as well.
However, 20% of all corporates lobbying the EU trade department are
not listed on the EU’s transparency register. This amounts to 80
organisations. Industry associations such as the world’s largest
biotechnology lobby BIO, US pharmaceutical lobby group PhrMA, and the
American Chemical Council are lobbying in the shadows.
More than one
third of all US companies and industry associations which have lobbied
on TTIP (37 out of 91) are not in the EU register. Even Levi Jeans lurks
in this murky group unwilling to publicly identify themselves.
The EU Commission even decided in its wisdom that its ‘transparency’
register was not mandatory or the issues being lobbied on do not require
admission in any way. Hardly transparent.
The United States has achieved most of the privately held meetings
behind closed doors. They represent the top ten of biggest spenders of
all lobbyists. ExxonMobil, Microsoft, Dow, Google, and General Electric
all spend more than €3 million per year on lobbying the EU institutions.
Big pharmaceutical organisations have stepped up their lobbying for
TTIP and this is particularly worrying.
The pharmaceutical sector is
pushing for a TTIP agenda with potentially severe implications for
access to medicines and public health. Longer monopolies through
strengthened intellectual property rules and limits on price-controlling
policies in TTIP could drive up prices for medicines and costs for
national health systems. Misery and death in exchange for profit.
The banking sector have lobbied hard for financial regulations that
they would like to see scrapped via TTIP.
From US rules on capital
reserves (which require companies to keep aside a proportion of capital
available to avoid risk of collapse or bailout), to regulations on
too-big-to-fail foreign banks. Big finance on both sides of the Atlantic
is also lobbying for a dedicated TTIP chapter on financial regulation,
which could lead to the delay, watering down, or outright block of much
needed reform and control of the financial sector necessary to avoid
another financial meltdown. Where is the sense in that?
When European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström took office in November 2014 she promised a “
fresh start”
for the TTIP negotiations, including more civil society involvement and
listening to public concerns as her “top priority”. Lets not forget
that the EU Commission undertook the largest ever survey of the EU bloc
on the subject in 2014 and garnered 150,000 responses, more than 100
times more than any previous consultation on trade — and
admitted that
the majority of respondents expressed fears that the deal’s investment
clauses would undermine national sovereignty. What the Commission did
not say was of that 150,000, 97% were opposed to TTIP.
In the first six months since Malmström took office, she, her Cabinet
and the director general of the EU trade department had 121 one-on-one
lobby meetings behind closed doors in which TTIP was discussed. No less
than 83% of these declared meetings were with business lobbyists – but
only 16.7% were held with public interest groups.
The fact that Malmström and her team seem to primarily deal with the
arguments of business representatives raises serious concerns that
industry lobbyists continue to dominate the agenda of the TTIP talks and
crowd out citizens’ interests. It is noteworthy that in a
meeting with French employer’s federation (MEDEF)
on 26 March 2015, for example, the EU trade department was warned that
“the 19 million European SMEs which do not export will face increased
competition” from TTIP.
To fully gauge who is being listened to one only has to read that of
597 closed-door TTIP meetings in the period 2102-14, only 53 or 9% were
represented by public interest groups. And nothing has improved.
A small example of corporations over people, came about in 2012 when
the trade department within the EU specifically contacted the crop
pesticides industry who were actively encouraged to “identify
opportunities of closer cooperation.” The response was that CropLife
America demanded “significant harmonisation” for pesticide residues in
food. Trade unions, environmentalists, and consumer groups did not
receive such special invites.
Likewise, The Association of Automotive Suppliers (CLEPA), got an
email from the EU Trade department thanking “you for your readiness to
work with us”, and offering a meeting, “to discuss about your proposal,
ask for clarification and consider next steps”. Again, public interest
groups did not receive this special treatment.
Another example of the formidable alliance between EU negotiators and
the corporate sector are the two most powerful lobby groups invited to ‘
co-write’
TTIP regulations by the EU trade department. Another is the enthusiasm
in the financial lobby community for the EU’s approach on financial
regulation in TTIP. When the EU’s position on the issue was leaked in
early 2014, Richard Normington, Senior Manager of the Policy and Public
Affairs team at TheCityUK – a key British financial lobby group –
applauded the Commission’s proposals, because it “reflected so closely
the approach of TheCityUK that a bystander would have thought it came
straight out of our brochure on TTIP”.
The largest single petition in history was against
Monsanto with a staggering 2.1 million signatures that has since been eclipsed by the petition
StopTTIP
that has garnered 3.3 million signatures. But this single petition is
massively overshadowed by the millions involved in protests groups all
over Europe. The goal is to arrest the corporate coups d’état of Europe
currently being facilitated by people like David Cameron, Cecilia
Malmström and Barack Obama.
For Britain, in the firing line of that take-over by corporations is
the NHS, food and environmental safety, regulations to stop an
out-of-control banking industry, privacy, security and jobs to name just
a few. Most importantly, our hard fought for democracy is not just
undermined – it’s for sale to the highest bidder.
It is quite incredible that the unelected bureaucrats of the EU
Commission are even entertaining such an idea as the deeply unpopular
TTIP trade deal amid huge citizen protest whilst already facing multiple
episodes of social, political and economic unrest and crisis as the
demise of the European project gathers pace.
The EU is experiencing extensive political threats and upheaval from
left and right of centre political groups angry at EU imposed austerity.
Greece is being raped by its so-called partners and it is just one of
several other EU states en-route to ruin.
The declining global economic picture provides all the more reason
for the corporations to look for new avenues of revenue. But which
businesses are pushing most for the proposed EU-US trade deal TTIP? And
who is really influencing EU negotiators? And just how are the rights of
European citizens represented in the biggest trade deal in history?
Just in Brussels alone, there are now over 30,000 corporate lobbyists, shadowy agitators as
The Guardian
puts it, who are responsible for influencing three quarters of
legislation in the EU. But even they are left in the shade when it comes
to the power being afforded to corporations in the TTIP negotiations.
The US Chamber of Commerce, the wealthiest of all US corporate
lobbies, and DigitalEurope (whose members include all the big IT names,
like Apple, Blackberry, IBM, and Microsoft) are there.
BusinessEurope, the European employers’ federation and one of the most powerful lobby groups in the EU are there.
Transatlantic Business Council, a corporate lobby group representing
over 70 EU and US-based multinationals. ACEA, the car lobby (working for
BMW, Ford, Renault, and others) and CEFIC, the Chemical Industry
Council (lobbying for BASF, Bayer, Dow, and the like) are all there.
European Services Forum, a lobby outfit banding together large
services companies and federations such as Deutsche Bank, Telefónica,
and TheCityUK, representing the UK’s banking industry are there as are
Europe’s largest pharmaceutical industry association (representing some
of the biggest and most powerful pharma companies in the world such as
GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Astra Zeneca, Novartis, Sanofi, and
Roche).
FoodDrinkEurope, the biggest food industry lobby group (representing
multinationals like Nestlé, Coca Cola, and Unilever) are sitting at the
negotiating table as well.
However, 20% of all corporates lobbying the EU trade department are
not listed on the EU’s transparency register. This amounts to 80
organisations. Industry associations such as the world’s largest
biotechnology lobby BIO, US pharmaceutical lobby group PhrMA, and the
American Chemical Council are lobbying in the shadows. More than one
third of all US companies and industry associations which have lobbied
on TTIP (37 out of 91) are not in the EU register. Even Levi Jeans lurks
in this murky group unwilling to publicly identify themselves.
The EU Commission even decided in its wisdom that its ‘transparency’
register was not mandatory or the issues being lobbied on do not require
admission in any way. Hardly transparent.
The United States has achieved most of the privately held meetings
behind closed doors. They represent the top ten of biggest spenders of
all lobbyists. ExxonMobil, Microsoft, Dow, Google, and General Electric
all spend more than €3 million per year on lobbying the EU institutions.
Big pharmaceutical organisations have stepped up their lobbying for
TTIP and this is particularly worrying. The pharmaceutical sector is
pushing for a TTIP agenda with potentially severe implications for
access to medicines and public health. Longer monopolies through
strengthened intellectual property rules and limits on price-controlling
policies in TTIP could drive up prices for medicines and costs for
national health systems. Misery and death in exchange for profit.
The banking sector have lobbied hard for financial regulations that
they would like to see scrapped via TTIP. From US rules on capital
reserves (which require companies to keep aside a proportion of capital
available to avoid risk of collapse or bailout), to regulations on
too-big-to-fail foreign banks. Big finance on both sides of the Atlantic
is also lobbying for a dedicated TTIP chapter on financial regulation,
which could lead to the delay, watering down, or outright block of much
needed reform and control of the financial sector necessary to avoid
another financial meltdown. Where is the sense in that?
When European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström took office in November 2014 she promised a “
fresh start”
for the TTIP negotiations, including more civil society involvement and
listening to public concerns as her “top priority”. Lets not forget
that the EU Commission undertook the largest ever survey of the EU bloc
on the subject in 2014 and garnered 150,000 responses, more than 100
times more than any previous consultation on trade — and
admitted that
the majority of respondents expressed fears that the deal’s investment
clauses would undermine national sovereignty. What the Commission did
not say was of that 150,000, 97% were opposed to TTIP.
In the first six months since Malmström took office, she, her Cabinet
and the director general of the EU trade department had 121 one-on-one
lobby meetings behind closed doors in which TTIP was discussed. No less
than 83% of these declared meetings were with business lobbyists – but
only 16.7% were held with public interest groups.
The fact that Malmström and her team seem to primarily deal with the
arguments of business representatives raises serious concerns that
industry lobbyists continue to dominate the agenda of the TTIP talks and
crowd out citizens’ interests. It is noteworthy that in a
meeting with French employer’s federation (MEDEF)
on 26 March 2015, for example, the EU trade department was warned that
“the 19 million European SMEs which do not export will face increased
competition” from TTIP.
To fully gauge who is being listened to one only has to read that of
597 closed-door TTIP meetings in the period 2102-14, only 53 or 9% were
represented by public interest groups. And nothing has improved.
A small example of corporations over people, came about in 2012 when
the trade department within the EU specifically contacted the crop
pesticides industry who were actively encouraged to “identify
opportunities of closer cooperation.” The response was that CropLife
America demanded “significant harmonisation” for pesticide residues in
food. Trade unions, environmentalists, and consumer groups did not
receive such special invites.
Likewise, The Association of Automotive Suppliers (CLEPA), got an
email from the EU Trade department thanking “you for your readiness to
work with us”, and offering a meeting, “to discuss about your proposal,
ask for clarification and consider next steps”. Again, public interest
groups did not receive this special treatment.
Another example of the formidable alliance between EU negotiators and
the corporate sector are the two most powerful lobby groups invited to ‘
co-write’
TTIP regulations by the EU trade department. Another is the enthusiasm
in the financial lobby community for the EU’s approach on financial
regulation in TTIP. When the EU’s position on the issue was leaked in
early 2014, Richard Normington, Senior Manager of the Policy and Public
Affairs team at TheCityUK – a key British financial lobby group –
applauded the Commission’s proposals, because it “reflected so closely
the approach of TheCityUK that a bystander would have thought it came
straight out of our brochure on TTIP”.
The largest single petition in history was against
Monsanto with a staggering 2.1 million signatures that has since been eclipsed by the petition
StopTTIP
that has garnered 3.3 million signatures. But this single petition is
massively overshadowed by the millions involved in protests groups all
over Europe. The goal is to arrest the corporate coups d’état of Europe
currently being facilitated by people like David Cameron, Cecilia
Malmström and Barack Obama.
For Britain, in the firing line of that take-over by corporations is
the NHS, food and environmental safety, regulations to stop an
out-of-control banking industry, privacy, security and jobs to name just
a few. Most importantly, our hard fought for democracy is not just
undermined – it’s for sale to the highest bidder.
Read more: Meet the Corporations Lobbying Hardest for TTIP and the End of Democracy : Waking Times
