EU Watchdog Radio

Episode 49: Time to ban Amazon!

Amazon is a frequent visitor to the EU Parliament. In January alone, it had nine meetings with MEPs. But when it refused to appear before the Employment Committee on a hearing on crucial issues concerning working conditions within its warehouses, it made MEPs from all party groups extremelly angry, and rightly so.  On 5 February, MEPs on the European Parliament’s Employment Committee sent an official letter to Roberta Metsola, the European Parliament President, urging the withdrawal of lobb...

Episode 48: Decoding COP28

Another year, another COP. As the UN climate talks concluded in Dubai, for the first time ever a “transition away from fossil fuels” has been mentioned in the final text, but calling for a win would be a clear overstatement. The text has the oily fingerprints of the fossil fuel lobby all over it. The reality is COP28 is more likely to facilitate a fossil fuel frenzy by cementing false solutions in the text: exactly what the army of lobbyists ordered. Listen to our new podcast episode of EU ...

Episode 47: Qatargate - one year later, what changed?

It's one year since the Qatargate corruption scandal exploded across the EU institutions and a good time to review if and how things have changed in the Brussels Bubble. In this episode, Joana Louçã talks to Corporate Europe Observatory's researchers Olivier Hoedeman and Vicky Cann. WHO WE ARE This podcast is produced by CEO and Counter Balance. Both NGOs raise awareness on the importance of good governance in the EU by researching issues like lobbying of large and powerful industries, cor...

An EIB for the people

As the European Commission’s current mandate draws to a close, some Commissioner’s are contemplating their next moves. One such politician is current Vice President Margrethe Vestager, who is campaigning to become the next president of the European Investment Bank (EIB). She is one of five potential candidates who will take over from current EIB president Werner Hoyer at the end of this year, with the successor to be chosen in the coming months. The EIB is the largest multilateral developme...

Episode 46: An EIB for the people

As the European Commission’s current mandate draws to a close, some Commissioner’s are contemplating their next moves. One such politician is current Vice President Margrethe Vestager, who is campaigning to become the next president of the European Investment Bank (EIB). She is one of five potential candidates who will take over from current EIB president Werner Hoyer at the end of this year, with the successor to be chosen in the coming months. The EIB is the largest multilateral developme...

Episode 45: No political will to curb food speculation

In this new episode of EU Watchdog Radio Hans van Scharen talks to UN rapporteur on the right to Food Michael Fakhri and Political scientist Yiorgos Vassalos. They discuss rising food prices and hunger, the link with financial markets and the lack of political will to curb the influence of financial speculation with food commodities, which contribute to excessive food prices and thus hunger.    This podcast is a follow-up of episode 43 in which Fakhri explained how hunger is not an issue of...

Episode 44: 30 years of EU Single Market

In this new episode of the podcast EU Watchdog Radio, Joana Louçã talks to economist and trade unionist Frank Ey, and to Olivier Hoedeman and Moritz Neujeffski, co-authors of CEO's latest report: 30 Years of EU Single Market: Time to remove the obstacles to social-ecological transformation. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the creation of EU's Single Market, and to mark it, we have just launched a new report (and a board game!) showing how corporate interests have used Single Market ...

Episode 43: Hunger is a political failure

This is the 43d episode of EU Watchdog Radio where we talk all things food security, food systems and the (often political) violence that is omni-present around the world when it comes to one of our basic needs: food. It ‘s an important year for the global food security debate and the current heated EU political debate on this topic is not looking very promising. The biggest political family EPP declared officially that they want to end all greening policies for agriculture and basically a...

Episode 42: Qatargate - The tyrant lobby and why transparency matters

Corporate Europe Observatory's researcher Kat Ainger, Olivier Hoedeman and Hans van Scharen talk about the corruption scandal and its’ consequences. This is the 42nd episode of EU Watchdog Radio where we talk all things Qatargate. What the EPP is plotting against civil society, what the problems are with the current EU transparency register and what better examples are used in other countries. CEO has for almost a decade now been looking into human rights abusers hiring consultants and re...

Episode 41: Welcome to LobbyLeaks.eu!

In our brand new episode of EU Watchdog Radio, we talk to MEP Paul Tang and to CEO’s Bram Vranken about the new website LobbyLeaks.eu. Welcome to the 41st episode of EU Watchdog Radio where we talk with Dutch MEP Paul Tang and to CEO’s Big Tech researcher Bram Vranken on the website LobbyLeaks.eu. LobbyLeaks.eu has just been launched by CEO and Lobby Control, with the support of several cross-party MEPs and it is a new hotline for anonymous tip-offs about lobbying, specifically focused on ...

Episode 40: EU Global Gateway - development or profit?

The EU Global Gateway has been pitched as the EU’s response to the economic, climate and energy crises engulfing the planet. Yet over a year after the European Commission launched the Gateway, it is still shrouded in secrecy. It is unclear if any new money is actually being made available for international development through the Gateway, or whether the strategy is mainly a PR exercise. Worse still, the Gateway may serve as an excuse to transfer development resources over to the private sect...

Episode 39: COP27 - just Kick Big Polluters Out

Episode 38: Toxic Lobby vs Green Deal

Episode 38: Toxic Lobby vs Green Deal

Episode 37: EU Watchdog Radio - Launch of Lobbyfacts

podcast 37 on Launch of Lobbyfacts with Lucy and Vicky Cann 

Episode 37 EU Watchdog Radio - Launch of Lobbyfacts

podcast 37 on Launch of Lobbyfacts with Lucy and Vicky Cann 

Episode 36: CEO Anniversary - 25 years of fighting corporate power

Welcome to a new summer episode of EU Watchdog Radio. In this episode we will very exceptionally…talk about ourselves, about CEO as a lobby watchdog and dive into how it all started 25 years ago. This year CEO celebrates it’s 25th anniversary albeit in a rather modest way, since at the start of this year the pandemic was still raging, and soon after a war started on the European continent with a subsequent energy- and food crisis. Not exactly a very festive momentum. But while discussing t...

Episode 35: COVID treatment - People's health vs private profits

In this episode of EU Watchdog Radio, we talk with Olivier Hoedeman, campaigner and researcher at CEO, and Bruno Maia, a doctor and activist. We discuss with Olivier how the EU approached the negotiations with the pharmaceutical companies, what we can get from the documents CEO requested access to, and what was the TRIPS waiver agreed with the World Trade Organisation. Bruno, on the other hand, addressed some of the concepts around vaccines. What are patents and do all vaccines have them? ...

Episode 34: Ukraine War: Can EU public finance help the rebuild?

In the latest episode of EU Watchdog Radio, we discuss how EU public finance institutions like the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) should approach the rebuilding of Ukraine after the war comes to an end. Russia’s hostile invasion of Ukraine sent shockwaves across Europe and beyond. The war has forced over 6.8 million people to flee the country, with millions more internally displaced. The damage done to Ukraine’s infrastructure has been colossal. Speaking at the Wor...

Episode 33: 1972 - 2022 Is the EU losing historic momentum?

In this new episode of EU Watchdog Radio we discuss some fascinating historical events that helps to understand why the European Union is functions the way it does, and why we have not made enough progress to tackle climate change, despite al the scientific knowledge we have accumulated since at least 1972.   This episode is published on the 9th of May for a reason: this is Europe Day and thus we publish the first of several episodes to celebrate the 25th anniversary of CEO. As the European...

Episode 32: Hooked on Gas - EU & the Ukraine War

In this episode of EU Watchdog Radio, we talk about the EU’s dependency on gas, what energy poverty is and in what way it is linked to the Ukraine war. We also discuss the energy alternatives the EU is considering, and what really needs to happen. Europe is facing a crisis of the cost of living and the invasion of Ukraine has exposed its dependency on Russian oil and gas.  As the EU continues to import them, it is directly funding Putin’s war. According to Beyond Coal, in March  alone Europ...

Episode 31: Ukraine war, food crisis and a toxic lobby

In the latest episode of EU Watchdog Radio, we discuss the linkages between the Ukraine war , the food crisis and subsequent ‘the policy fall-out’.  Agrobusiness lobbies and their political allies abuse the crisis to derail and delay the EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy. A toxic lobby amplified by conservative politicians was very quick to start, calling for increased food production due to the Ukraine war. And thus they called for the need of more fertilisers and pesticides as they wrongfully th...

Episode 31: Ukraine war, food crisis and a toxic lobby

In the latest episode of EU Watchdog Radio, we discuss the linkages between the Ukraine war , the food crisis and subsequent ‘the policy fall-out’.  Agrobusiness lobbies and their political allies abuse the crisis to derail and delay the EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy. A toxic lobby amplified by conservative politicians was very quick to start, calling for increased food production due to the Ukraine war. And thus they called for the need of more fertilisers and pesticides as they wrongfully th...

Episode 30: Europe’s secret €25 billion stash

In the latest episode of EU Watchdog Radio, we discuss the European Guarantee Fund (EGF), a secretive €25 billion fund created by the European Investment Bank (EIB), ostensibly to help European businesses in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The fund aims to use the €25 billion invested by the EIB to inject  €200 billion into the European economy. Yet while this may sound good in principle, systemic problems abound with the EGF. Firstly, the EGF itself is so mired in secrecy that it is di...

Episode 29: Macron's EU vs Transparency & Democracy

In this new episode of EU Watchdog Radio we discuss France, French politics, the role that French President Emmanuel Macron wants to play in the EU and what vision he has for the future of Europe. Disclaimer: the French Presidency of the EU Council which started on 1 January promises a very corporate-driven future of Europe!  An EU Presidency prepared in close collaboration with the French corporate sector which is setting a policy agenda that strongly reflects business demands. That was th...

Episode 28: Corona power of Big Pharma & European lies

In this new episode we’ll talk to two experts - Dimitri Eynikel, an expert of Doctors without Borders  and CEO-researcher Olivier Hoedeman-  on how the EU is dealing with the new phase of the pandemic, with a special focus on the still unresolved unequal access of large parts of the world to Covid-19 vaccines, new medicines and therapeutics. Experts have long warned that if the global population does not have access to vaccines, new variants of the virus will emerge and hit us back. The cov...

Episode 27: COP26 and Net Zero Greenwashing

In this new episode of EU Watchdog Radio we take the temperature of the international Climate conference COP26,  that started this week in Glasgow. Activist Greta Thunberg is right by saying and sometime shouting the word ‘Greenwashing’ all over Glasgow. While COP26 in Glasgow was branded by the UK government as the COP where the world should take historic decisions, it seems the UK government has been putting up a gigantic greenwashing PR -show. Government and climate policy by announcement...

Episode 26: The European Green Deal - Reclaiming Public Investments for a real Socio-ecological Transformation

In this new episode of EU Watchdog Radio, we take a closer look at the European Green Deal (EGD) and in particular how it is being financed. Counter Balance released their latest report on October 20, 2021. In “The European Green Deal: Reclaiming Public Investments for a real Socio-ecological Transformation” Counter Balance shows that the financial basis of the EGD is undersized and wobbly at best. In this episode we talk to Xavier Sol, Director of Counter Balance about the main findings of...

Recovery Watch VS the Great EU Robbery

In this new episode of EU Watchdog Radio we dive into the question on how the European governments are actually spending the billion and billions of EU recovery funds. We focus specifically on France, which is taking over the EU presidency as of 2022 (Under the influence | Corporate Europe Observatory) . The climate movements are preparing for the important climate summit which will take place in Glasgow, early November. All kinds of experts, like the scientists of the IPCC told us that we ...

Episode 24: Recovery Watch VS the Great EU Robbery

In this new episode of EU Watchdog Radio we dive into the question on how the European governments are actually spending the billion and billions of EU recovery funds. We focus specifically on France, which is taking over the EU presidency as of 2022 (Under the influence | Corporate Europe Observatory) . The climate movements are preparing for the important climate summit which will take place in Glasgow, early November. All kinds of experts, like the scientists of the IPCC told us that we ...

Episode 25: Big Tech VS EU Democracy

In this new episode of EU Watchdog Radio, we start with a Bang. This podcast deals with the question how the big digital corporations and platforms like Facebook, Google, Amazon and others try to influence European policy making to keep their business models intact. New research by CEO and the colleagues from the German association LobbyControl, shows the incredible lobby firepower of Big Tech. The new study ‘The Lobby network, Big Tech’s web of influence in the EU’  provides a unique and d...

Big Tech VS EU Democracy

In this new episode of EU Watchdog Radio, we start with a Bang. This podcast deals with the question how the big digital corporations and platforms like Facebook, Google, Amazon and others try to influence European policy making to keep their business models intact. New research by CEO and the colleagues from the German association LobbyControl, shows the incredible lobby firepower of Big Tech. The new study ‘The Lobby network, Big Tech’s web of influence in the EU’  provides a unique and d...

Episode 23 Part II: An EU love affair with big pharma

In the second part of this episode we first talk with Dimitri Eynikel,  expert of Doctors without Borders  who explains why the proposals of the EU to counter or derail the proposal of South-Africa and India, are rather meaningless. Dimitri explains why the proposals of the EU to boost global production and access to vaccines and therapeutics will simply not work and might even take us backwards. And why in times of a pandemic this attitude of the European Union is “quite shameful”. Then we ...

Episode 23 Part I: An EU love affair with big pharma

In this special summer episode we’ll bring you the true story on how the European Union has been dealing with the covid-19 pandemic so far and why the EU seems to have a deep love affair with Big Pharma.  In two parts of this podcast several experts will explain that the European Commission – the executive branch of the EU - not only has a very eurocentric way of dealing with the pandemic, but also persists in complete secrecy on how it negotiates with powerful pharmaceutical companies.  W...

Episode 22: EU: social justice or corporate power?

In this new episode of this podcast we put spotlights on the European Union as an economical superpower and how the EU regulates - or not - corporate power. The European way of doing (geo)politics is often described as ‘soft power’. But the impact of European businesses in other parts of the world – as well as in the EU itself - is often not so soft; As corporate behaviour often leads to human rights violations and destruction of ecosystems.  So how is the EU dealing with issues like enviro...

Episode 21: Transport vs Climate Change

 In this new episode of EU Watchdog Radio we dive into the issue of plains, trains, cars and bicycles aka transport and why this is such a powerful issue in the context of climate change and healthy societies. Since the lockdown many plains stayed on the ground, which from a climate perspective is a good thing. The pandemic learned us that we need to change certain ways in which we live, travel and consume. While even governments and policymakers acknowledged this need, they pay out billion...

Episode 20: Biotech lobby vs the Green Deal

In this new episode of EU Watchdog Radio we dive into the covert lobby tactics used by the biotechnology industry to get a new generation of GMO’s to be used in agriculture, deregulated in the EU. Why are agrochemical companies like Bayer and Corteva so against having European safety rules?  And why is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation financing this lobby-campaign?   A few decades ago some agrochemical companies started selling patented seeds created with genetic modification, for grow...

Episode 19: Climate urgency and false solutions

This new episode of EU Watchdog Radio is dedicated to the Global Climate strike on Friday the 19th of March; Two experts talk about how the current proposed climate policies are too much oriented towards market based solutions and influenced by the same industry that created climate change: the fossil fuel companies. In the year 2021, we have started the last decade we have to take urgent climate action.  The scientists of the IPCC told us we have ten years to curb  greenhouse gas emissions...

Episode 18: Energy Charter Treaty vs Climate Urgency

In this new episode of EU Watchdog Radio we dive into one of the biggest examples of ‘cognitive dissonance’ in recent history. Every (European) policymaker knows by now that fossil fuels should stay in the ground, but yet they keep defending the EU’s membership of a treaty that defends fossil fuel investments: the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT). We’ll be talking with Pia Eberhardt , campaigner and expert on international trade from CEO, who explains the ins and outs of this strange creature an...

Episode 17: Lobbying Frontex for Fortress Europe

In this new episode we dive into the incredible story on how Fortress Europe is being constructed by a European agency called the ‘European Border and Coast Guard Agency’ AKA Frontex, almost in the dark and without any democratic oversight. With billions of EU taxpayer’s money and the help of dozens of lobbyists from defense, arms and surveillance technology industries, Frontex is creating a world that George Orwell would have found inspiring when writing his book ‘1984’. In the first weeke...

Episode 16: Private vs Public healthcare

Pandemic, austerity, privatisation and the urgency of an honest debate on health care policy. In this first new episode of 2021, we dive into the topic that is unfortunately still on everyone's mind each and every day: the raging pandemic. Our main focus is why were /are health care systems in many countries under such pressure when dealing with Covid-19?  From hospitals to care homes, the outsourcing and privatisation of healthcare , in combination with various EU austerity policies, have ...

Episode 15: Hydrogen hype vs climate

Listen to CEO-researcher Belen Balanya who published a report on the 'Hydrogen Hype' and why this trojan horse of the gas industry is not a climate solution, making the EU Green Deal a grey deal.

Episode 14: Black Rocking the Green Deal

‘Black rocking the European Green Deal’ is the title of this fourteenth episode, in which CEO researcher Kenneth Haar and Jana Leutner researcher at Change Finance, discuss the Blackrock scandal. Together they published a report called “The BlackRock Model”, in which they uncover the scale of the blunder of the European Commission by granting a contract to BlackRock to give advice on ‘sustainable finance’.   On the 25th of November it became crystal clear that the European Commission ignore...

Episode 13: Can the EIB become the EU Development Bank?

In this new EU Watchdog Radio episode, Xavier Sol, director at Counter Balance discusses the role of the European Investment Bank (EIB) outside of Europe and the bank’s intention to become the ‘EU Development Bank’. A new report published by Counter Balance and CEE Bankwatch Network   however shows that the Bank is not yet fit for the task. The report titled 'Can the EIB become the 'EU Development Bank?', exposes the EIB’s poor track record on human rights, superficial due diligence and mon...

Episode 12: Common Agricultural Policy VS Farm2Fork

In this new EU Watchdog episode CEO-researcher Nina Holland explains why and how it is possible that the European Parliament and ministers of Agriculture decided this week - under influence of the powerful agrochemical lobby to go for the destructive status quo on European agriculture. Nina Holland, researcher at CEO, main author of a very recent CEO-report on the Agrochemical lobby explains how a ‘unholy alliance’ of the big farm and agribusiness lobby group Copa-Cogeca, together with pest...

Episode 11: Covid-19, vaccines, Big Pharma’s lobby and the quest for transparency

In this new episode, after a long summer break we dive into the topic that is unfortunately still on everyone's mind each and every day: the raging pandemic. Our main question: when will there be a vaccine? The second question: who controls the development of those vaccines? And who protects the general interest or public health against the problematic, profit-maximising business-models rampant in Big Pharma? Three experts (Olivier Hoedeman, Yannis Natsis and Ellen ‘t Hoen) provide the answe...

Episode 10: An EU Love Affair with Fossil Fuel

In this tenth episode, German investigative reporter Harald Schumann describes how and why many EU member states seem to still have a crush on fossil fuels. Despite the overwhelming knowledge and practical evidence of the effects of climate change, governments keep subsidizing the use of fossil fuels. Schumann and his colleagues from the pan-European journalistic platform Investigate Europe just published a series of articles that exposes this ridiculous and counter-productive policy of Euro...

Episode 9: EU Green Deal or Grey Deal?

In this ninth episode, Belén Balanyá and Lala Hakuma Dadci both researcher and campaigner at Corporate Europe Observatory, take a step back and have a critical look at what is currently happening with the EU flagship project the EU Green Deal (EGD). The EGD could be one of the most important and hopeful EU policy initiatives. It is testimony to civil society and citizens movement's impact. Excluding public investment funds to fossil fuel industries is key to foster a sustainable and just tr...

Episode 8: EU Climate Bank - Greenwashing or Banking Revolution?

In this eighth episode, Clara Bourgin, research and policy assistant at Counter Balance digs into the recent commitments taken by the Europe Investment Bank (EIB) – the lending arm of the European Union - to become the “EU Climate Bank”. Back in November 2019, the EIB took the groundbreaking decision to phase out its support to fossil fuels and to align all its operations with the objectives of the Paris Agreement by the end of 2020. As a result, expectations around the EIB are high.  Stil...

Episode 7: Tainted Love - corporate lobbying and the German EU Presidency

In this seventh episode Vicky Cann, researcher and campaigner at Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) and Nina Katzemich EU Campaigner at LobbyControl dig into so called the green credentials of the German government. They explain how the German Government’s ‘love affair’ with gas and the unconditional support for its automobile sector are two clear cut examples of how its EU Presidency risks preventing effective climate action by the EU. A week ago CEO and LobbyControl published a new report...