..A must read for for every US voter and concerned citizen.. challenges the reader to explore new possibilities and new mindsets that will ultimately be required if the world is truly ready to make a change.. amazon.com US onlyObservatory, Lobby Control and Spinwatch
9th December 2008
Agrofuels lobby and Finnish MEP disgraced at Worst EU Lobbying Awards
ceremony
Brussels, 9 December -- The winners of the 2008 Worst EU Lobbying
Awards have been revealed at a ceremony in Brussels today, despite a
last minute attempt to gag the organisers with legal action from one
of the candidates. More than 8500 people took part in the online
public vote [1].
One of the candidates for the Worst Conflict of Interest Award,
suspended Commission official Fritz-Harald Wenig, unsuccessfully
tried to silence the Worst EU Lobbying Awards last week by taking
legal action in the Court of First Instance in Brussels to have his
name removed from the nominations and not have his name mentioned
during the Worst Lobbying Awards ceremony. The court ruled that
freedom of speech was more important in this case.
This year's Award for the Worst EU Lobbying 2008, with more than 50%
of the votes, goes to a joint nomination for the agrofuel lobbyists,
the Malaysian Palm Oil Council, Brazilian sugar barons UNICA and
energy company Abengoa Bioenergy for their use of misleading
information and greenwash. The lobbyists tried to influence crucial
debates in the European Parliament and Council by claiming that
agrofuels (crops used for fuel for cars and lorries) are sustainable
[2].
The Worst Conflict of Interest Award 2008 goes to the Finnish MEP
Piia-Noora Kauppi, with 26% of the votes cast. MEP Kauppi has been
promoting the interests of her future employer, a banking lobbying
group, while still an active member of the European Parliament.
Kauppi has consistently urged light-touch regulation for the banking
sector and in January 2009 will officially be employed by the
Federation of Finnish Financial Services [3].
Commenting on the Conflict of Interest vote, Olivier Hoedeman, from
Corporate Europe Observatory said:
"The voters' choice of Piia-Noora Kauppi reflects real concern about
MEPs being too closely aligned with corporate lobbyists. Stronger
rules are needed to prevent conflicts of interest, including
a 'cooling off' period for MEPs going through the revolving door to
become industry lobbyists."
He added that the lack of adequate transparency and ethics rules make
it far to easy for MEPs to accept paid work, hospitality and other
benefits from businesses which have a direct interest in the
legislative process [3].
Commenting on the Worst EU Lobbying Award, Christine Pohl from
Friends of the Earth Europe said:
"These three agrofuel lobbies have invested heavily in misleading
propaganda aimed at influencing the Parliament's and Council's
decision on targets for using agrofuels in transport. Each of them is
guilty of political greenwash, claiming that using crops to feed cars
is sustainable and ignoring damage to the environment and the
livelihoods of local people."
The runners-up in the Worst EU Lobbying category were the
International Air Transport Association (IATA) for its deceptive
lobbying campaign to avoid CO2 reduction obligations in the aviation
sector and PR agencies Gplus and Aspect Consulting for supporting the
spread of war propaganda in the recent conflict between Russia and
Georgia. The runners-up in the Worst Conflict of Interest category
were British MEPs Caroline Jackson for her twin roles as an MEP
dealing with environmental issues and as an environmental advisor to
a private waste management company and German MEP Klaus-Heiner Lehne
for his dual role as an MEP and lawyer for EU competition and
regulatory issues.
British activist and comedian Mark Thomas, who jointly presented the
awards at the ceremony in Brussels, said:
"The most fundamental tenet of democracy has to be transparency. If
we don't know what politicians are doing and whose interests they are
representing how can we even begin to control and elect them? By
naming and shaming the winners of the Worst EU Lobbying Awards, I
hope we can illustrate the crucial need for action across the EU to
prevent such conflicts of interest and corporate abuse from damaging
people's lives and the environment."
So far, just one of the nominees for the Worst Lobbying Awards, IATA,
has registered in the Commission's lobbying register [5].
The Worst EU Lobbying Awards 2008 is organised by Corporate Europe
Observatory, Friends of the Earth Europe, Lobbycontrol and Spinwatch.
***
NOTES:
[1] The awards ceremony takes place on 9 December, 19:00-20:30
(welcome and reception at 18:00) at Le Bouche a Oreille, rue F�lix
Hap, 11, 1040 Brussels. Winners receive their awards from the Master
of Ceremonies, who will be joined by comedian, activist and writer
Mark Thomas. Music will be provided by Franco-Belge band, Afota. The
ceremony will be in English.
VOTING RESULTS:
Worst Lobbying Award:
The agrofuels lobby (including MPOC, Unica and Abengoa) 52%
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) 14%
Gplus and Aspect Consulting 13% The European Alliance for Access to
Safe Medicines (EAASM) 12%
The European Business and Parliament Scheme (EBPS) 10%
[Total online votes cast 8643]
Worst Conflict of Interest Award:
Piia-Noora Kauppi MEP 26%
Dr Caroline Jackson MEP 23%
Klaus-Heiner Lehne MEP 22%
Ex-European Commission officials Petite, Klotz and Kjolbye 14%
Commission official Fritz-Harald Wenig 14%
[Total online votes cast 8394]
Full details on all the nominees can be found at:
http://www.foeeurope.org/corporates/worstlobby/candidates.pdf
http://www.worstlobby.eu/2008/vote
[2] Further information about the misleading campaign of MPOC, UNICA
and Abengoa can be found at:
http://www.worstlobby.eu/2008/vote/info/5/worstlobby
[3] Further details of Piia-Noora Kauppi's conflict of interest can
be found at:
http://www.worstlobby.eu/2008/vote/info/7/worstconflictofinterest
Piia-Noora Kauppi is currently on maternity leave but continues to
speak out on banking issues e.g.
http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2008/11/21/afx5726022.h
tml
[4] For further examples of similar "revolving door" and other
conflicts of interest cases, see the Spinwatch report, Too Close for
Comfort, July 2008 (www.spinwatch.org)
[5] See European Commission Register of Interest representatives:
https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/transparency/regrin/welcome.do
See also: One step forward, two steps back? New Commission EU lobby
register is weak and unbalanced, ALTER-EU press release, 23 June
2008:
http://www.alter-eu.org/en/news/2008/06/23/one-step-forward-two-steps-
back-new-commission-eu-lobby-register-weak-and-unbalan
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Biofuels are a wide range of fuels which are in some way derived from biomass.
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