- Captured states: when EU governments act as middlemen for corporate interests Archived Message
Posted by johnhol
on February 6, 2019, 11:15 pm
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Begins: Do you know why your phone bill is still higher than it should be when you travel within the EU? Or why you and your food will still be exposed to the pesticide glyphosate in the coming years? Or why banks got their way after the financial crisis, while you shouldered the impacts of austerity? It’s easy to blame those infamous-yet-anonymous Brussels bureaucrats for the decisions which come out of the EU, but in fact all member state governments - including our government’s ministers and officials, at least until Brexit kicks in - are around the table when EU rules and regulations are discussed and agreed. And – as a new report reveals today – too many governments take conscious and proactive decisions to support corporate interests over the wider public interest. In fact member states are the missing part of the jigsaw - alongside the European Commission, elements within the European Parliament, and the EU treaties - which explain the pro-corporate bias of too many EU laws and policies. But the secrecy around how member states act at the EU level, as well as around which corporate lobbies they are talking to, contribute to creating myths and misunderstandings. Remember how, in the UK Brexit referendum of 2016, TTIP, the proposed EU-US trade deal, was often cited as a reason to leave the EU, capitalising on very legitimate public concern that TTIP would lead to the further privatisation of the NHS? But what was lost in that debate was the way in which the UK Government had been proactively pushing for TTIP in Brussels, including supporting the inclusion of health services in the scope of the deal. And of course now the UK Government is touting for a post-Brexit trade deal with the US which would rival TTIP, and which would be negotiated without democratic scrutiny! The new report from Corporate Observatory Europe exposes for first time how member states – the UK, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Poland and others - act as middlemen for corporate interests in EU decision-making. Continues: https://www.opendemocracy.net/uk/vicky-cann/captured-states-when-eu-governments-act-as-middlemen-for-corporate-interests |
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