Brussels, 15/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - A new study published on Tuesday 14 July by lobby watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) and global consumer NGO Sum of Us shows that major corporations in the pharmaceutical and financial industries have strongly increased their lobbying efforts to support the transatlantic trade and investment partnership (TTIP) negotiations.
According to the data analysed by CEO and Sum of Us, the pharmaceutical industry increased its pro-TTIP lobbying sevenfold between 2012-2013 and 2013-2014. The financial and machinery sectors also significantly increased their efforts during the same period.
CEO and Sum of Us have observed a “dramatic corporate bias” in the European Commission's approach to TTIP. Close cooperation with the big companies has not changed significantly since Cecilia Malmström from Sweden took over from Karel De Gucht from Belgium as European trade commissioner in November 2014.
According to the study, in the first six month's of her mandate, Malmström, members of her cabinet and the director general of DG Trade had 122 lobby meetings on TTIP behind closed doors - 100 of which were with private lobbyists, and only 22 of which were with public interest groups.
The study also shows how the TTIP agenda is mainly influenced by companies from Western Europe and the USA, whilst companies from Greece, Portugal, Cyprus, Malta and Eastern Europe have not carried out any pro-TTIP lobbying at all. Furthermore, one in five lobby groups that has met DG Trade does not feature on the EU's transparency register - including Maersk, Levi's and AON, as well as powerful federations such as the world's largest biotechnology lobby group BIO, and the pharmaceutical lobby group PhRMA.
“This data justifies millions of citizens' concerns about the threats posed by TTIP¨. While big business lobbyists are kept firmly in the loop and exert a powerful influence over the negotiations, public interest groups are kept at bay. The result is an agenda for TTIP that calls into question key standards and rights for citizens and the environment while dramatically expanding business power over politics in both the EU and US”, CEO deplores. (Emmanuel Hagry)