Brussels, 11/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - No sector of activity has lobbied the European Commission more than the agrifood lobby during the preparation phase of the negotiations for the transatlantic trade and investment partnership agreement (TTIP), according to a study published on 8 July by the NGO Corporate Europe Observatory. Representatives from agrifood companies, agri-traders and seed producers have had more contact with the Commission's DG Trade than representatives from the pharmaceutical, chemical, financial and car industries put together, according to data compiled by the NGO. The data cover the contributions to public consultations and stakeholder meetings organised by the Commission, and meetings with lobby groups behind closed doors.
Of the 560 lobby meetings that DG Trade held to prepare the negotiations, 520 were with representatives from the business world, and only 26 were with public interest groups. “DG Trade actively involved business lobbyists in drawing up the EU position for TTIP while keeping 'pesky' trade unionists and other public interest groups at bay. The result is a big-business-first agenda for the negotiations which endangers many achievements that people in Europe have long struggled for, from food safety rules to environmental protection”, Corporate Europe Observatory states. According to this NGO, while the Commission has publicly claimed that the TTIP will not threaten European rules on food and environmental safety, an analysis of data published this week shows the opposite. “Agribusiness lobbies such as the pesticide industry have strongly pushed their agenda via the TTIP negotiations with the aim of undermining current EU food regulations. Trade tools such as 'mutual recognition' and 'regulatory cooperation' are likely to lead to an erosion of food safety standards in the long run”, the NGO stresses.
According to Corporate Europe Observatory, apart from the agrifood lobby, the ICT, automobile, engineering and chemicals sectors have also brought weight to bear on the preparation phase of the TTIP agenda. The NGO states that the preparation work “has been largely driven” by businesses with headquarters in the US, Germany or the UK, and by industrial lobby groups organised on the EU level - such as the European employers' federation BusinessEurope and the European Services Forum (behind which are large service companies such as Deutsche Bank and the TheCity UK). Corporate Europe Observatory also notes that companies from Greece and large parts of Eastern Europe have been totally absent from the TTIP negotiation preparation work. Lastly, according to the NGO's data, over 30% (64 out of 269) of the private sector interest groups that have lobbied DG Trade are not on the EU's Transparency Register - and this includes large companies such as Walmart, Walt Disney, General Motors, France Telecom and Maersk. (EH)