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The Brussels Business (2012)
People dont understand ...
... what the European Union is. They dont understand how it is governed. They dont know who are the people who runing it. But they know that they were not chosen by the people. And so, when they see the results less than perfect, they say, ... ... 'Who do we blame?' And they dont know who to blame ... ... because they dont know who these people are. When I started out as a young environmental activist, ... ... I had no idea that I should end up as watch-dog in the Brussels machinery. But I was stunned to the discover ... ... how fragile political decision-making process is. And to realize how easily it can be manipulated. There is a dark force behind this machinery. An entire industry operating in the shadow. Often in secrecy and very confidential. This industry is the lobby industry. For 20 years now, I've been fighting to uncover ... ... who are these people who are pulling the strings of the EU decisions. How do they operate? And how they are linked to the EU political elite? Hello? Oh yes, good evening. I'd like to speak to Rafael, please. Oh, he's not there. Listen, I'd like to leave a message for tomorrow. I just want to confirm the meeting ... ... that we have fixed. My name is Mr. Kerneis. Pascal Kerneis. K, E, R, N, E, I, S. Yes, from the European Services Forum, ESF. Yes, and we have meeting tomorrow, but ... ... I did get time today to confirm. I want to do it now. Is that ok? Yes? Thank you very much. Bye-bye. Well, Brussels is a small city, kind of a province city, ... ... but that is only the surface. And then, when you know a bit further about it, ... ... Brussels is a really good place. This is where the business taking place. This is where legislation start. I think that the figure is around 80% of all legislations ... ... which are touching direct life of EU citizens, ... ... is actually initiated here in Brussels. If you look at place Schuman, ... ... the epicenter of political power in Europe, ... ... you see the European Commission on the one side ... ... next to the Council of EU. And all around that square you'll find lobby offices. Most of them belonging to big multinational corporations. You'll find them also in all side streets. All over to the European Parliament and beyond. You'll find the lobby headquarters of large corporations. You'll find industry lobby groups and their ... ... lobby operations been orchestrated from the offices in that area. 2500 lobby structures are based in Brussels. 15 thousand lobbyists. The second biggest lobby industry in the world. Only Washington DC is bigger. So, EU legislation is ... ... complicated and goes through a lot of stages. It always start with a European Commission. They take new initiatives for legislation, for policies ... ... and it goes through the institutions. Parliament, the Council of Ministers. And from the moment that the European Commission ... ... take very first steps in developing new legislation or new policies, ... ... Industry wants to be there to influence it. Administration is not really for me, so I really ... ... want to have the possibility to go and work ... ... for the private sector, where I'll decide myself ... ... what I will do. I thought that is much more ... ... something for me. And then I discovered a business around the European institutions. And I started to be a lobbyist. You know, we ... Everybody believe about ... ... the lawmakers are institutions. A institution in the European Union is about ... ... The Commission, the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament. But there is also another world behind that, which is ... ... how to influence the institutions? To make a text. To give a good idea. To ... ... propose amandmans, to try to find you in the text ... ... depending on the interests of people who are willing to push for. In the mid '90s ... ... we have come across so may examples of EU policies that are basically ... ... captured by the industry and industry lobbying. We felt it was really fundamental problem here ... ... the influence of industry is excessive. And ... ... we decided to setup a group to document examples ... ... and to start developing a strategy to rollback this excessive influence. That's how it started. In the early '90s I was working as enviromental campaigner within NGO ... ... based in Amsterdam, cooperating with other ... ... enviromental NGO's across Europe. One day in the summer of 1993., I remember that fax came in ... ... the fax machine in the office and it came from the south of France ... ... from local environment group. The group was fighting against ... ... motorway that was planned to go through the valley ... ... in the area they lived. In the valley of D'Aspe. Ecologically very important area. Very beautifull area. The group asked if we knew more about the role of the EU ... ... and specifically the European Commission in this motorway project. So we started looking into this. We discovered that this motorway project ... ... was part of something called Trans-European Networks. Trans-European networks was the biggest ... ... infrastructure project in the history with ... ... estimated budget of 400 billion euro's. Friends from Sweden came up with another detail. There was an influential lobby group behind this and they asked us ... ... 'Do you know of ERT, the European Round Table of Industrialists?' I did not. I started digging for more information about ERT. I went to our archive and I didnt find anything. I started diving into the alien world of business press. Newspapers like the Financial Times, The ecconomist, ... ... German business newspapers. And we've found references to a new report ... ... that have been published shortly before, called ... ... 'Reshaping Europe'. That sounded rather interesting. And we've ordered this report from European Round Table headquarters. I did not believe that I would get anything ... ... but a few days later a big brown envelope ... ... arrived in my letterbox. Three booklets were inside. I took the first two publications, ... ... 'Missing networks', 'Missing links'. Gone through them. Something is strange about them. Euro Tunnel Scanlink Pyreneas corridor Somehow they looked soo familiar. I went to the archive. 'TEN project' by the Commission. I went through the papers. I compared them. Back and forth. What a striking similarity. Projects are almost identical. The Commission seems copy/pasted ERT proposals. Now I was really curious. I took 'Reshaping Europe'. The authors, three CEO's. Jerome Monod, Pehr Gyllenhamar and Wisse Dekker. Living in the Nederlands I knew Wisse Dekker. He was the head of the Philips. One of the largest companies in the country. Pehr Gyllenhamar was the head of Volvo, car producing company. And Jerome Mono was the head of Lyoneaisse des eaux, ... ... very large French multinational. So, the authors of this report were ... ... three CEO's from some of the biggest companies in Europe. It was a political manifesto written by these industry leaders. Meeting in Dublin is mentioned. 45 CEO's. All from multinational companies, ... ... representing billions of euro's of turnover. Companies like Fiat, La Farge, ... ... British Petroleum, Hoechst, Nestle, ... ... Shell, Unilever, Siemens and many others, ... ... all of them supported what is in this book. What was stunning was that ... ... these three CEO's would sit down and actually write ... ... report that was a detailed set of recommendations ... ... for how to change the face of Europe. I finished my job with the Commission in April 1990. And I have decided that maybe is best place is, actually, where the money is. So I went to the European Banking Federation. I have worked a long time. Nine years in the European Banking Federation ... ... and I started also to discover ... ... an additional work to Europe, which was ... ... international trade. It was just before 1992. single market. Jacque Delors at that time was the president ... ... and he had really givin' impetus. He emphasised that Europe was something ... ... and that we have a role to play. And that was really pushing everybody in the city to say ... ... 'There is something that all of us together can do.' It was a feeling that if we act together ... ... we can be friends and change the world. I can say that I represent around 80% ... ... of all of the services exporters and investors. I can say that I represent around 60 million workers. As a turnover it is, let's say 50% GDP of the European Union. I dont really believe in to chance. It's part of it, but most of the time you will provoke a chance. And then it's gonna be up to you to ... ... see opportunity when the chance is there. In December 1993., NGO network I worked for ... ... had it's annual meeting. And the meeting should take place in Brussels. They decided that this was the perfect opportunity ... ... to do something a little provoking. Night before we wrote press release ... ... and in the early morning we went to the ERT office. One of us rang the door bell and told the secretary that ... ... he is a student looking for some documents. When the door opened we all run up the stairs quickly ... ... and we all managed to get in the ERT office that way. I remember it very well. I was at some meeting .... ... in the morning, so I think it was mid-morning ... ... when I came into the office ... ... and found banners hanging around the office ... ... and a lots of strange faces around. So I said, 'What's happening?' 'Will somebody please tell me what's going on?' And they said, 'We've come to occupy your building and ...' Possibly they wanted a confrontation. Possibly they wanted me to ring up the police ... ... and have the police come and throw them out, but ... ... it didnt seemed to be a good idea at all. Indeed finally, there was some reasons ... ... but we had the office lunch ... ... so I took everybody, my people out to lunch and ... ... left them there. We were surprised by the reaction that we got from the ERT that day. He went often to a room and ... ... talked about that aparently and decided to leave. What we did was that we used ERT press lists. We faxed press release to the international media. We expected that the occupation of this ... ... very shadowed but a powerfull ... ... business lobby group would really interest thet media. But things were a little bit different. I think we talked to one newspaper ... ... and there was a radio program that was interested. For the rest, it was silence. We did not know when the ERT staff would come back. But on the tables there were positioned papers we quoted later on. But there was also a very neatly organized archive. Everything sorted. So we decided to be fast and copy as much as possible. In those documents were letters from the ERT ... ... and demands from the ER to the European Government ... ... and to the European Commission. And there were the responses. It really showed us the degree of access that they had. And incredible influence that was clear from those documents. So when we tracked back the history of the ERT, ... ... we found that it started in the early '80s. ERT represent the first time that multinational firms ... ... organized purposely and politically at the European level, ... ... to try to influence European policy. In the early 1980s, Europe was behind. You had rising Japan and ... ... of course, strong United States and ... ... Europe was really concerned about falling behind. What happened actually is that ... ... Pehr Gyllenhamar from Volvo started talking about ... ... trying to find a way to create a marshall plan for Europe. Gyllenhamar himself was known as a political animal. He loved a limelight. So Gyllenhamar drew up a list of heads of multinational firms. Individuals who might come together ... ... and come up with some ideas and actually participate ... ... in finding solutions to economic problems at the time. From the Commission, ... ... the member of the Commission who was really keen was the Belgian ... ... called Stevie Davignon. He had diplomatic and business background ... ... and he could see the need and he said, ... ... 'If I want to talk to European industry, who do I talk to?' What I found out when I was commisioner for industry ... ... that there was an insufficient contact inbetween the Commission and the ... ... economic apparatus. The relation which existed was a relation with ... ... federations of Industries at, I would say, the official level. But not at the level of the people who were ... ... responsible for a individual businesses. And I felt that we are missing this. And so we decided to set up ... ... group of industrialists, which later became the ERT, ... ... so as to have the capacity to listen to the CEO's. There were Agnelli's who run Fiat in Italy. There was Wise Dekker who run Philips' in the Netherlands. There was Pehr Gyllenhamar who run Volvo in Sweden. People from Siemens and big German chemical companies. French, Spaniards and the British. A small number of people who run the biggest companies in Europe ... ... and were ready to talk about big policy issues ... ... with those people who were in charge in the European ... ... goverment machine. And then when they meet ... ... a visionary president of the Commission Jacques Delors, they find ... ... that Jacques Delors is thinking in entirely the same terms. So why dont we get together and pull their ideas? That's the breakthrough we made. I'm fascinated. That's probably a good word to put me as a description. Lobbying is always ... ... understood as a bit of a dirty work, but it's just ... ... networking, just contact between human beings. The world is very small, actually. The people we have to reach out actually at the end of the day ... ... is becoming smaller and smaller. If you know the right person ... ... actually, always gonna be about 100 persons that are keepers. The rest are moving around. You know that I, actually, the next week I have a appointment with a ... ... someone from the Taiwan delegation and ... ... in Brussels ... We'll talking about ... Companies are global nowdays. And therefore the American companies, ... ... the Chinese companies, the Indian and Taiwanese companies, ... ... are actually, my highlights. We are working together for the same purpose, ... ... which is to open up the market. I have contacts friends in other countries. And we have actually established global services coalition, ... ... so we working together to push and put the pressure ... ... for the same purpose. The word 'lobbying' is about actually, working in the lobby of the hotel. And meeting the people ... ... with which I'm going to go in a decision-making meeting. Ok, shall we go? Shall we go? You have to be first well informed, ... ... consistent and modest. The world is changing, people are changing everyday ... ... so I'm always very careful in what I'm saying. I am very careful about what is right today ... ... might not be right tomorrow. It's because we are on the long-term basis. My job it's ... ... not going to be pretending that I'm going to change the world tomorrow. And the only way for me to deliver ... ... is to meet and meet again and repeat and convey messages. 1993. was the year when the EU was born, ... ... to us that's been sold as a political project. But these letters that we have found in December ... ... pointed in a totally different direction. The files showed that the ER and the European Commission ... ... were meeting on a regular basis. The tone is amazingly jovial and informal. However, all that went on in complete secrecy. ERT and the European Commission work hand in hands. In 1984. 'Missing links' was published. And immediately after the European Commission sets up a working group ... ... with ERT, on exactly this topic. In January 1985. Wise Dekker, CEO of Philips, ... ... presents his 'Europe 1990' ... ... and his action plan for the single market. 10 days later, Jacques Delors, new president of the European Commission ... ... gave a speech about the single market in the European Parliament ... ... which sounds like the echo of Dekker speech. In June 1985. the Lord Caulfield, Vice-President of the Commission ... ... published his famous single market 'White Paper'. Copy/Paste of Dekker plan. Every 6 months there was an EU summit. And every 6 months the ER met. Just a few days before. Location and date were kept confidential. The booking was made two years in advance. They met at that level twice a year. One of them took on responsibility of ... ... arranging the meeting. So often they would meet in some fairly nice place. We met once in the opera house in Milan. We met in a big museum in Germany. We met in Royal Palace in London. And they were arranged for the Prime Minister or ... ... Foreign minister or whoever ... ... to come and talk. Sometimes it was very impressive. When everybody was struggling to join the single currency, ... ... I can to this day remember the Finance Minister of Spain ... ... when there was a general elections, he said, ... ... 'Dont bother. Whoever wins this general election ...' '... Spain will do whatever is necessary.' It's a terrible strong message. He felt able to speak for the other parties as well ... ... because he knew that Spain is determined. That kind of things is very impressive. We talked to a French Prime Minister ... ... who had a lot of doubts about world free trade. One of our people, may have been Norwegian. Somebody who wouldnt normally get mauch of a chance to talk ... ... to a French Prime Minister, he said, ... ... 'You've got to do this, Prime Minister. You've got to be a part of this ...' '... free trade movement.' And then one of the German chemical people spoke up ... ... and said the same thing. 'We need free trade.' 'European business need free trade.' 'France must not block it.' And I dont think that the French Prime Minister took that seriously. Because no French businessman ... ... would talk to him in those terms. Well, ... ... I think it's important to see that the ERT was club ... ... of top businessman and it operated as a club. There were no delegates, they turned up in person. Talking to other members at their own level. So it functioned like a club, like any other club, ... ... like a church club or dance club. When they met, ... ... if you put the Italian car manufacturer ... ... and a German chemical manufacturer together ... ... they discovered that they have common problems. They are all worried about barriers to trade. They are all worried about skill of young people ... ... who were trying to get jobs. They are all worried about the world financial system. And so, all the time we are meeting this way ... ... and these people would give 48 hours, which is a lot of time, ... ... and then all go home. And ... ... we would hope they would spread the message ... ... to their own colleagues, to their own countries ... ... and to their own governments, to their own politicians. You know, to talk more widely about it. Saying that we need to build Europe that works better. Because without Europe we are lost. Left behind was a clear message to the following EU summit ... ... for the heads of goverments a few days later. Adopt this single market ... ... and monetary union, infrastructure projects, ... ... flexible labor market, deregulation, ... ... downsized public services, austerity measures ... ... and so on, a whole Neoliberal agenda for them. It was the message of the ERT you could find it ... ... also elsewhere in kind of a business circles. But ... ... what we found very scary was the ... ... very close cooperation and personal links also ... ... between ERT and the European Commission, in particular. So basically, our picture got confirmed by American scholar ... ... steppin' in to the topic, Maria Green Cowles. I was interested in ... ... doing something about Europe, something about the EU. Here in the US we really didnt ... ... know much about the single market program ... ... until our business people here in US brought it to Congress. And all of sudden there was this big disscusion about fortress Europe ... ... and that the European Community at the time was creating this entity ... ... that would prevent American firms for beeing able to do business there. And if you ask me to think what was the role of business ... ... behind the single market program ... ... what I could read and what have been published at that time, ... ... really have suggested that it was largely government led initiative. But once I started asking questions ... ... in meeting with different people in Brussels ... ... it started a whole different story. I start to talking with some of the CEO's and then ... ... particularlly with the Corporate Affairs managers of these firms ... ... to ask them what happened. And everybody had a little piece of the story. And then I met with Keith Richardson. Keith and I would talk about different things and ... ... he would give me some ideas ... ... and I'd go and talk with other individuals. And then I come back with more questions. And sometimes used he had the answers and sometimes he didnt. And finally, I believe it was on my seventh meeting with Keith, ... ... When I said to Keith, 'You know ...' '... I can write about this, I can have all of these interviews, ...' '... but I really want to see the pieces of paper.' And Keith said to me, 'Well, ...' '... I have a bunch of cardboard boxes in the basement of ERT.' 'We have not opened them.' 'They are from the earlier days. We just put this material in the boxes.' And of course, in a back of my mind I was very excited thinking this is it. Maria Green Cowles came across a telex. It was from Wise Dekker, CEO of Philips. In December 1985. he wrote to the heads of state. Just before the signing of the single European act ... ... which started the process of the single market. The crux of the telex was as follows ... ... 'We dont know what you are going to do, but we want you to act.' 'You can act one way or another.' 'If you choose not to have a single market program ...' ' ... then you have given us no choice but perhaps ... ' '... take our business elsewhere.' This was a clear threat. ERT represented 60% ... ... Western Europe's industrial output. This was blackmail. Why didnt single government say anything about the Dekker telex? Or about the other threats that followed? They were all elected representatives. We felt that this was a betrayal. And we wanted to do something about it. It was important that bigger public to know about this. And we decided to publish a book. Besides collecting data we started to make interviews. Undercover interviews. Erik was the perfect person for doing these interviews. At that time, Press Accreditation was easy to obtain. For a magazine or journal, and you are a journalist. I mean, it was not completely untrue, ... ... it was also not completely true. By the mid 90s the ERT was everywhere. In advisory boards for the Commission, ... ... in export groups, in research institutes and Think tanks. Some people said that it was hardly lobby group anymore but ... ... already part of the EU institutions. However, the ERT was only one out of over 2,000 lobby structures in Brussels. We started to dive into the lobby world. In business federations, lobby consultanties, ... ... in Public Affairs offices, ... ... in Think tanks. Finally in spring 1997., we assembled the results of our investigations ... ... and interviews into the report ... ... 'Europe, INC'. We scheduled a book launch for big EU summit in Amsterdam. All the media will be there. We were excited. We have prepared a book launch and a half-hour before ... ... first friends started to arriving. But ... ... very little or no Press showed up. So yes, that was disappointing. We thought we had some very exciting material ... ... presented in a nice way and ... ... it is clear that is disappointing that the ... ... media didnt take up that story. A very large part of companies investing abroad are actually ... ... discriminated toward the local competitives. Sometimes they dont give you the licences all day. Wait very much all day. Put a lot of taxes, they find ways and means ... ... to slow down your business. You are obviously ... ... not in the level playfield and that is your disadvantage, so ... ... my job is actually about removing these difficulties ... ... and sometimes through barriers. When I was a little boy I remember one of my ... ... dearest toy was actually the globe that ... ... I've been offered once for Christmas. And ... ... I was looking at this world and all the different countries ... ... and I was dreaming about it and I felt ... ... 'One day I hope I'll be able to travel.' We have just concluded most ambitious ... ... of market opening and rule making exercise ... ... strengthing rules based system of multilateral trade. And perhaps most important, ... ... the establishment of a stronger and more broadly based ... ... World Trade Organization. When I started to work on financial services GATTs negotiations, ... ... that was really a time when I've discovered that this is ... ... really interesting and I really liked to do that. What is interesting in international trade is ... ... international treatty signed by the EU. Even if it is not European legislation is above European legislation. And all countries of the EU have to respect ... ... an international treatty that the Union has signed. We've come to the end of the most far-reaching ... ... trade negotiations ever. You, the negotiators of the 117 governments involved ... ... have achieved extraordinary success. With your approval therefore ... ... I gavel the Uruguay round is concluded. The internal market of the EU was becoming an ... ... a very important market, rich market. With the highest GDP per capita and ... ... that when the EU was going outside and negotiate as a block ... ... they had a real power. Because it was the biggest exporter, ... ... biggest importer, biggest foreign investor. But sir Leon Britain, ... ... trade commisioner EU was complaining that every time ... ... he was going to negotiate with the United States ... ... in front of him he will see his counterpart. And on his back he will have CEO's of big banks ... ... and big insurance companies telling him, ... ... 'Please do that for me, please do that for us.' But when sir Leon Britain was turning his back to see where his support was ... ... he was actually had only some ministers that saying ... ... 'Dont do this, dont do that. Please do that only but no more.' And he was really not very happy. We discovered that there is a whole world of lobbyists in Washington. To tell their government what they want in the Trade Organisation. And we thought this is the way we have to go. We have to do something like that. European institutions is asking for it. European institutions can not only ... ... rely on information given by the member states and ... ... experts in the Finance Ministries. They need to get the information directly from ... ... the banks and insurance companies. The World Trade Organization was planned at the time ... ... when there was a wave of privatization around the world. And when there was a dominant thinking that ... ... what is good for large companies is good for everyone. Just give them free reign. In October 1997. I was on the train to Paris. On the way to a meeting that will bring together activists ... ... from across Europe and around the world ... ... to discuss trade agreement that was negotiated ... ... behind closed door at the OECD. The debate was about the multilateral agreement on investment MAI ... ... and it was about international investments. Sounds pretty harmless, to an outsider, probably. But in reality, it's boiled down to a massive attack and ... ... undermining potentially of Democracy. Multilateral Agreement on Investment was cooked up ... ... by some of the worlds largest corporations and their associations. And their goal was to constrain governments ... ... from regulating these big corporations ... ... and from regulating capital on investments. It literally constrained governments. It put hand-cuffs on government regulation. And then ... ... empower the corporations with a whole new set of rights ... ... to be freed from regulation but also to sue our governments. So, this agreement would have meant that governments ... ... would have to compensate foreign companies ... ... if they wanted to increase environmental protections, ... ... if they want better labor standards, ... ... if they want to secure equal treatment for women ... ... or if they want to tax capital. MAI would even let to companies been compensated ... ... for expected profit that they might lose from some ... ... new law or regulation. This goes completely against the logic even on a free market. Negotiations were top secret and behind closed doors. Until the official proposal by the EU was leaked. It was some Canadian group that somehow obtained ... ... electronic copy of the text. Well clearly, the original source ... ... was a Democracy loving civil servant ... ... in the government, that sholud not be mentioned. How that eventually got around is ... ... we scanned the text into a website ... ... and wrote the commentary on what it ment ... ... so that the lay person could actually understand it. But when all of this got public ... ... it turns out that several of the European governments ... ... didnt even know about it. And then France put up her Veto. So, business had been so successful ... ... in influencing the MAI rules, ... ... that this time it was counterproductive. Despite the defeat in the OECD with the MAI talks, ... ... commissioner Leon Britan ... ... didnt want to give up of this project. So he broughted in again under the name MIA ... ... and wanted to launch a similar ... ... Investment treatty in the WTO talks. Mr. president, ladies and gentlemen ... ... I think there is a wider degree of consenssus on this issue ... ... than protagonists would wish to admit. The fact to the matter is that most people, if not all who spoken ... ... do see the merrits of international Agreement on Investments. And they are right to do so. You can not force investments to take place. You can do what you like. You can shout and you can scream slogans from the sky, ... ... but people will not invest ... ... unless they believe that there is a possibility ... ... to get a return. Now it well may be that the scene shifts of the WTO. To achieve that we have to persuade everybody ... ... that there should be a new Millennium round ... ... and we have to persuade people ... ... that the negotiations on investment should take place in it. So then in that point of time ... ... the European trade commissioner sir Leon Britan ... ... decided, 'I am going to invite for dinner 40 CEO's ...' '... of the major services companies in Europe.' Big banks, big Telecoms, ... ... big insurance, big distribution services, ... ... big transport services, big tourism companies, ... ... and all different sectors ... ... that it is actually making about 70% of GDP in Europe. So, he invited a bunch of 40 of those and ... ... after dinner, he said, 'Well, now that you've got some ...' '... some 'food' by the Commission you owe me something.' 'You have to do something for me.' People sometimes think that the Commission ... ... comes up with ideas out of the blue and then pushes them. It's not so at all. The Commission is thirsty for ideas from the economic actors ... ... to help us ... ... to decide what to put forth which is in the interest of Europe. It really was, I think, at the time when ERT ... ... became more and more present in the city. It became clear that there was a new way of lobbying. But the ERT, from the world I'm coming from, which is the services sectors, ... ... didnt represent anybody. So, it was clear also that if the service sector wanted to be heard ... ... they had also to bring some CEO's ... ... to put their voice loud. Whereas we had strong ... ... European bodies pushing for steel industry, agriculture, etc, ... ... the services were not united and didnt provide ... ... clear voice and advice for the Commission. And that was very important, it was a various sectors, ... ... the most important sectors ... ... and we needed this advice and I wanted that to provide it. That's the way I became the managing director European Services Forum. We had 11 months to prepare Seattle. The first WTO ministerial conference after the creation of this organization. And the idea was that this meeting is going to launch ... ... Millennium Round that sir Leon Britan had so much pushed for. The Commission has for very, very long time taking as its starting point, ... ... interests in the negotiations, the interests of large European companies. For example, when we would ask for access to Commission documents ... ... like a correspondence and minutes from meetings, ... ... to reconstruct what is going on ... ... whole fuss arises. The Commission would treat these requests as if they were hostile act. They would crossout all the ... ... essential elements that they think not want us to know. Treating us as if we were an enemy. Sir Leon Britain never got to Seattle. The entire Commission had to resign ... ... because of the massive fraud ... ... several commissioners were involved in. And in Seattle, ... ... Millennium round itself took completely unexpected turn. We were not alone anymore with our concerns. I was based in the Hilton Hotel, ... ... and conference was in the Sheraton, 500m away. And I'm not been allowed to go out of the hotel because ... ... there was one protester blocking the door by laying on the ground. And it was the police officer beside him ... ... I asked him, 'Can I go outside please?' 'I'd like to go and do my job.' I was going to assist to the launch Seattle round, ... ... so that we will enter into a new phase negotiations ... ... for liberalization of services. I remember that the commissioner Lamy was on the way to his car, ... ... but the car couldnt move. Because those people there ... is just there. And a policeman said to them, 'Please go away 5m ...' ' ... so that the high VIP here can do their job.' There are many NGOs saying that ESF is super secret organization ... ... at the secret meeting with the European Commission. Although everything is on my website. I mean, I am doing my job ... ... by contacting Commission officials responsible for my file. If anybody else would like to do same, ... ... their phone number is on their website. I'm just doing my job and I dont have anything speciffic, but ... ... if the Commission has some relations with ESF ... ... it is because the Commission is ... ... willing to get some information from the services sectors ... ... before negotiating on their behalf. Because this what we talking about. Trade is done by companies, not by NGO's. This is the annual dinner of the 'Friends of Europe' ... ... which is really a very big Brussels organization. Lots and lots of people from different countries, ... ... different jobs, different walks of life, ... ... are all interested in ... ... how can Europe develop? How can we pull right the things that are wrong? How can we build on what we've already done? I will call it a Think tank. Think tanks in Brussels are filling a part of vacuum ... ... that exists at EU level, that there is no European public debates. So Think tanks step in to that vacuum and ... ... they are forums in which something like a debate happens ... ... inside the Brussels bubble. There are national politicians, there are European politicians, ... ... there are Civil service and draeded bureaucrats are here, diplomats, ... ... businessman, there are professors from universities, all sorts of people. One thing about Brussels. It's a bit like a village. Everybody talks to one another. When I worked to the ERT, ... ... part of my job was to keep in contact. Think tanks are not themselves lobbyists, ... ... but they are part of the landscape of lobbying because ... ... companies use them to transmit their demands and their perspectives. And all of these are heavily depended on industry funding. Several people sponsor it. Microsoft is one of them. American business is present in Europe. Microsoft is one of them, ... ... why not? You have had Think tanks in Brussels ... ... that were directly funded by the oil industry ... ... and to working to resolve ... ... whether there is such thing as climate change ... ... and whether it's important for governments to act ... ... to reduce the CO2 emissions. You can setup research institute to provide you with the ... ... research that would strengthened your position. You can alunch massive PR campaigns and ... ... flood the media with your information. What also happens is seting up fake NGO's ... ... as happened in big battle about self repentance law. Suddenly the word is advertisment from the NGOs that ... ... said it was representing small and medium set companies, ... ... but financial backers of these NGOs are Microsoft and SFE. In the end it's all about money. In Democracy it's one person - one vote, but ... ... in Brussels business is 1 euro - 1 vote. The problem is that we dont know about the money behind the politics. We dont know how much was spent on lobbying ... ... by whom and on which issues. We need to get this under democratic control. It has to be made visible what role is of lobbying in the EU decision-making. What is the role of large companies like Monsanto or Shell? And what is the role of foreign governments ... ... like the Chinesse or Russian in making decisions in Brussels? We actually have had a Lobby Disclosure law in the US. Although most people do not know this, since World War II. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ... ... was worried that Adolf Hitler was trying to lobby Congress ... ... to prevent the US from entering World War II. Todays threat to our national security ... ... is not a matter of military weapons alone. We know of new methods of attack. The Trojan horse, the fifth column. And as a result, he passed this Lobby Disclosure law ... ... that said quite simply, if your primary purpose is to ... ... influence legislation on Capitol Hill, ... ... then you have to register and disclose who's paying you. To do that sounds simple enough. However, that was mandatory. It essentially made it as a voluntary system, ... ... because that type kind of definition is so subjective. What is one's primary purpose? And as a result you had 9 out of 10 lobbyists ... ... not registering and not disclosing. When I started to work as Capitol Hill lobbyists in 2002. ... ... that was the time when the ... ... style of lobbying evolved things like gift giving, ... ... campaign contributions, fundraising, ... ... hiring the revolving-door persons out of Congress ... ... with lucrative jobs. And I noticed I just wasnt able to get through to most people. I couldnt even get through to meet with many lawmakers ... ... unless I had something to give. So I started preparing ... ... legislation to reform the lobbying process. But, ... ... as you can imagine ... ... no one reallly was interested in my legislation proposal. What changed everything was this ... ... 'super-lobbyist' named Jack Abramof ... ... who's suddenly was caught in the middle of a big major sting operation. I he agreed to point the finger ... ... at those lawmakers whom he bribed. And as soon as that news broke, ... ... my phone started ringing off the hook over in my office. I didnt even have to go visit any legislators anymore. They were calling me, saying, ... ... 'You know that reform legislation you were talking about?' 'Could we sign on to that?' And at that point the legislation moved through Congress, it moved very quickly. And this is known as the Honest Leadership and Open Government act. We had a desire to regulate lobbying for a long time. But in 2004th the new Commission came in. And for the first time, ... ... 10 East European countries were a part of it. The first Barroso Commission started in the autumn of 2004. We wrote an open letter to the Commission president, ... ... to Jose Manuel Barroso, signed by over 50 NGO's. Response was a very short form of letter. I'd say we have received two letters with, 'Thank you, very interesting.' But no substantial response. So we sent a similar letter to all the Vice-Presidents of the Commission. And suddenly, towards the end of February ... ... we were contacted by the office of Siim Kallas, ... ... commissioner from Estonia responsible for administration ... ... inviting us to come over. So we went to Mr. Kalas's office ... ... which was somewhere on top of the building. We didnt know what we had to expect from this meeting. We have never been approached by a commissioner ... ... so in this sense, it was very exciting. We were welcomed by Mr. Kalas himself ... ... and one of his cabinet members and ... ... in his hands Mr. Kalas had a brochure and ... ... that makes us smile. It was the lobby plan of guide to Brussels which was a ... ... cheap but very critical look at industry lobbying in the EU, ... ... written by Erik and me and our colleagues. When I started as administration commissioner ... ... I really saw that there was so big suspicions ... ... surrounding decision-making in the EU. And of course I put certain ... let say ... ... established for myself a purpose to little reduce this suspicions. Kalas told us that he was going to launch ... ... this European transparency initiative, ... ... and we immediately saw that it was a big political opportunity. As an outsider to the Brussels business he also had a clear sence ... ... for how the ordinary citizen thought about Brussels. I Siim Kallas took it on with a lobby industry. European Commission is convinced ... ... that activities of the interests representatives are legitimate ... ... and offer valuable input in to the decision-making process. But things have to happen in a transparent manner. The Commission consideres that it is important to know ... ... whose interests representatives are? What interests they represent? And against what financial background? I put a lot of effort to create a speach and this is of course ... ... outlined. The main principles of transparency initiative ... ... which should be done. And it was of course met ... ... with excitement and a lot of controversial reactions. When is a lawyer, a lawyer and when is a lawyer, lobbyist? When the EU was considering European transparency initiative ... ... they were looking for some advices to how some of these achievements ... ... happened in the US. And as a result I was brought about half a dozen times to testify ... ... before the European Commission and the European Parliament. So one of my first testimonies before the European Commission ... ... was very, very awakening experience. I had one commissioner interrupt me and say, ... ... 'Well, we understand you had a problem in the United States ...' '... with lobbying activities and Jack Abramof, ...' ... but he went on to say, ... ... 'But you know, this is Brussels and this is Europe.' 'We dont have that kind of activities going on here.' 'We do not have Jack Abramof's in Europe.' Which just kind of floored me. That anyone could be so naive and actually believe that. Michael Moore perhaps effective answer was, 'Ok ...' ' ... all concieved that a lot of this case street lobbyists ...' '... and the professional lobbyists here in the US ...' '... may be corrupt.' 'However, I know every major case-street lobby shop ...' '... also has a lobby shop in Brussels.' 'And so, we are in your bed. Dont you want to know ...' '... if you think that we so corruptible ...' '... and so corrupting, ...' '... dont you want to know who we are and who is paying for us ...' ' ... and what it is we trying to get you to do for us?' To tell the truth, I was very impressed with Siim Kallas ... ... when I first started to work with him in the European Commission. Siim Kallas helped really ushered ... ... the whole significance of needing transparency. But, halfway through the process ... ... Siim Kallas came up against political realities. After three years of struggle and political fight ... ... exhausted commissioner Kalas enter the stage ... ... to finally launch lobby register. It is noon. Or afternoon. So quite remarcable moment today. Three years ago, I proposed to setup a register of lobbyists ... ... in order to enhance transparency and legitimacy around ... ... EU decision-making process and the register starts from today. So, we proposed voluntary solution ... ... because I am convinced that this would suit for all. All expectations. I think that today is a very important moment of cultural change ... ... concerning these ... ... these aspects of decision-making in European institutions. Siim Kallas introduced voluntary system. Against all recommendations by NGO's and experts. This was the best he could get. We've tried for over two years now to find out ... ... who have blocked Kallases original intention? Were it other commissioners? The Commission Secretariat? Lobbyists themselves? We do not know. But shortly after, ... ... at the annual award ceremony of the lobby industry ... ... the winner of the Think tank of the year ... ... had a clear message for Mr. Kallas. I know I'm not mention it in speeches, but I'm going to. Because I wanted to say ... ... we, 'Friends of Europe' were not sure ... ... whether our efforts are worth. And I'll tell you why. Because commissioner Kallas ... ... who cant tell the difference ... ... between Think tank and lobbyists. I thought that we in business, we now ... ... 'Friends of Europe' and other Think tanks, ... ... we provide a platform for a different points of view ... ... and use them for the benefit of people. To help them towards these different point of view. And mine view is that ... ... your award means a lot for us from the 'Friends of Europe' ... ... because you are the guys who really know ... ... how European political errand ... ... should be shaped and how shaping it. So thank you very much. One month after the financial crisis started ... ... in October 2008., Jose Manuel Barroso ... ... appointed an independent high level group on financial supervision. The group was to work up proposals ... ... for the regulation of the financial markets ... ... and to find way out from the financial crisis. Eight so-called wise man were appointed to this group. Jacques de la Roche, Rainer Masera, Onno Ruding, Otmar Issing, ... ... Keller McCarthy, Leszek Balcerovitz, Jose Perez Fernandez and Lars Nuger. We looked into the independence of this independent group ... ... and we've found some astonishing things. De la Roche is representative of the financial lobby organization. Masera is linked to Lehman Brothers. Ruding to Citi Group. Issing to Goldman Sachs. McCarthy, Nuger and Balcerovitz are notorious deregulators. And Perez Ferenandez ... ... works to provide financial market intelligence to big banks. Three of the eight are directly linked to the American banks ... ... all of which were directly involved in causing the crisis. Balcerovitz, in addition, is closely linked ... ... to American right-wing Think tanks like the Keito Institute. Which was one of the closest advisor to the British administration. He was also involved in Neoliberal Think tanks ... ... in Brussels and Poland and the UK. Not a single of these 'wise' man wasnt in favor of strict regulation. Not a single one of them was really independent. And the effects of these eight 'wise' man ... ... on overcoming the financial crisis were sealed on. The meeting that happened was that a lot of public money ... ... was flowing to the banks. This whole affair has a horrible sense of deja vu. The same financial institutions that were bailed out ... ... with taxpayers money ... ... are now making a fortune from Greeces misfortune. While those same taxpayers are paying the price ... ... in deep cuts to their salaries and social services. After 20 years of deregulation and liberalization ... ... suddenly the EU herself was at the edge of been blow up. What is at stake is not only the EU ... ... but also Democracy ... ... and future of the values that we hold dear. Was it this what Europeans wanted? Was it really naive to have a European dream? It is in the human nature, that you have not only good. You'll always have a bad side of something. And we need to make sure that we keep only the good. And therefore you need to be patient. When you live in a society you have rules, because otherwise ... ... people will go to fast on motorways, ... ... because people have no respect for others, because ... ... stronger will take his place. This is a human nature. What have we done to go and make sure that we live together ... ... is by creating legislations. By creating an authority that everyone respect. sub by feha@neobee.net |
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