Intense lobbying by the fossil fuel industries and a lack of transparency are the conclusions of a report on Tuesday 7 July by the Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) regarding lobbying activities in Brussels on the European Green Deal.
According to this report, the first hundred days following the launch of the Green Deal (see EUROPE 12388/1) were significant for the 151 meetings held between those representing the interests of major industrial groups and the main members of the European Commission responsible for the Green Deal,
namely the President, Ursula von der Leyen, the Vice-President, Frans Timmermans, the Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson, and the Directors-General, Ditte Juul Jørgensen and Mauro Raffaele Petriccione.
“This represents about 11 meetings each week”, the CEO points out, adding that only 29 meetings (or two per week) were held with public interest representatives over the same period of time.
What the organisation denounced even more than the frequency of these meetings, is the lack of transparency around them.
Of the 56 meetings between lobbyists, Commissioner Timmermans and his cabinet, the European Commission claims it had only three minutes.
Most of the unrecorded meetings, however, relate to the fossil fuel industry, note the authors of the report. These “abusive practices”, according to them, will be challenged before the European Ombudsman.
To view the report: https://bit.ly/2Z7wTR7 (Agathe Cherki)