EU Watchdog Radio

In this episode, Marilisa Marigliano, Policy Officer at Counter Balance, speaks with Frank Vanaerschot, Director at Counter Balance, about their new briefing on green public services. As Europe faces rising living costs, energy crisis, and climate breakdown, they discuss how public investment can help deliver affordable housing, clean energy, and accessible public transport while accelerating deca...

We need to talk about what deregulation actually means in Brussels right now. It means one commissioner holding 184 meetings with external actors, 182 of them with business groups. It means indigenous Sami reindeer herders in Sweden losing their last migration route to a fast-tracked mine. It means the public funding the polluters' infrastructure while they keep the profits. In this episode of...

In this episode, Marilisa Marigliano, Policy and Advocacy Officer at Counter Balance, speaks with Laëtitia Sédou, EU Project Manager at the European Network Against Arms Trade (ENAAT), about how EU public finance is fuelling the militarisation and boosting the global arms race. Together, they explore how deregulation is reducing safeguards in favour of the military sector, and how major military c...

In this episode, Joana from Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) talks Nina Holland, agribiz researcher and campaigner at CEO, to Rachel Radvany, environmental health campaigner at the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), and to Olivier De Schutter, legal scholar and university professor specialising in economic and social rights, who served served as the United Nations Special Rapport...

While negotiations for the next EU budget are underway, the European Commission’s plan to set up the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF) as the main vehicle to achieve its clean industrial agenda. In today’s episode Marilisa Marigliano talks with Angela Wigger and Rodrigo Fernandez to debunk the InvestEU program, which is set to be the cornerstone of the ECF, raising urgent questions about who ben...

In this episode, Joana and Pascoe, co-directors of Corporate Europe Observatory's new documentary "The scramble for hydrogen in South Africa" talk about the process behind the making of the film. It's a more relaxed and informal episode than usual, where you can get to know the whole truth behind the making of the film, and how you can host your very own screening!

In this episode, Isabela Franco and Lora Verheecke from Counter Balance unpack the EU’s growing push for critical raw materials and its implications for the Global South. They discuss the Global Gateway, the Critical Raw Materials Act, the use of public funds to “de-risk” private investments and the lack of meaningful participation for impacted communities and Indigenous people. A concise and crit...

Do you know how much money Big Tech is spending on lobbying in Brussels? How has this amount been increasing? On what is the money being funnelled to and what can we do about it? Listen to our new episode of the podcast EU Watchdog Radio to find out!

In this episode, Lora Verheecke, Policy Officer at Counter Balance, interviewed Hikma Bachegour, an Assistant Professor in the Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University in Fez, Morocco. They highlighted the impacts of European hydrogen projects in Morocco and how it could affect vulnerable communities, women, and gender minorities, who are too often left out of the decision-making process.

Stay tuned to a brand new season of EU Watchdog Radio, where new hosts Isabela Franco and Lora Verheecke from Counter Balance join Marcella Via and Joana Louçã from Corporate Europe Observatory. New episodes coming soon!

Listen to the brand new podcast episode of EU Watchdog Radio, where CEO's campaigner and researcher Kenneth Haar discusses the link between the announced trade tariffs from the USA to the EU and deregulation. He presents the 5 buzzwords that you need to know in order to understand the deregulation agenda of the European Commission.

Listen to our new podcast episode, where Nina Holland talks about the intense lobby battle that the biotech industry has been waging to get its new generation of genetic modification techniques excluded from European GMO regulations.  GMO stands for genetically modified organisms. This will mean that crops or wild plants made by using this new generation of genetic modification techniques, will no...

Last week, Brussels went reeling under another corruption scandal! This time it's Chinese big tech giant Huawei whose offices just behind the European Parliament have been raided - along with those of 15 former and current MEPs from the EPP and S&D groups. Huawei is, according to the Belgian prosecutors, being investigated for ”active corruption within the European Parliament," includ...

The EU’s financial system operates in the shadows, with institutions like the European Investment Bank (EIB) wielding immense financial power, but who actually benefits? In the latest episode of EU Watchdog Radio, we sit down with Yanis Varoufakis - former Greek Finance Minister, Member of the Greek Parliament, and relentless critic of financial elites - to dissect the EU’s economic machinery. Fro...

What does a lipstick, a non-stick frying pan and Scotchgard have in common? They all contain PFAS, a.k.a., forever chemicals! In this episode, Vicky Cann, campaigner and researcher at CEO, explains how her huge report "Chemical reaction - Inside the corporate fight against the EU’s PFAS restriction" came to be and what were the most shocking results she unveiled. It can be read here 👉 h...

In this last episode of EU watchdog radio of 2024 we dive into the topic of the global power of the Big Meat lobby and how two dozen ultra rich companies dominate the political and policy agenda including at the FAO. We talk to professor Paul Behrens, climate expert at Oxford university and Caitlin Smith, senior campaigner at Changing Markets Foundation, about the report The new merchants of doubt...

On Monday 28 October, South Africa submitted a detailed memorial against Israel to the International Court of Justice, seeking to establish that Israel's military actions in Gaza amount to genoc1de.  Unsurprisingly, it was South Africa, a country from the Global South with a past marked by colonisation and brutal apartheid, that stood up against Israel. South Africa was supported by countries such...

After pressuring Azerbaijan to up gas production for export, the EU is using COP29 to greenwash the fossil fuel and its own climate image. In this episode we talk to Pascoe Sabido, campaigner and researcher at CEO, about his analyse the EU's hypocrisy as its climate goals and upholding human rights are overtaken by energy security demands and greenwashing.

With the launch of the so-called “Investment Commission,” a worrisome agenda takes shape: prioritising supply chains and deregulation while neglecting vital public investment. In an era of renewed austerity, private profit reigns supreme, overshadowing the funds needed for a just transformation and climate goals. Chiara Casati and Frank Vanaerschot dig into the Draghi report, EIB updates, and Comm...

Double deregulation, competitiveness checks, rule of law or the omnibus law, it can all sound like technocratic gibberish, but they are all pieces of the downward spiral in social standards that are in immediate risk. But this social dumping is not the only challenge ahead, the same applies to environmental protection. This episode takes us beyond these unpronounceable words to discuss what is rea...

As it prepares to usher in a new era of austerity, the EU is rife with declarations of increased militarisation, coupled with measures to significantly increase European arms spending and strengthen the Union's military capabilities. In this episode, Laëtitia Sédou of ENAAT looks at the impact of skyrocketing military spending, the powerful influence of arms industry lobbying and the worrying...

Hi, and welcome to the new season of EU Watchdog Radio, a podcast by Counter Balance and Corporate Europe Observatory. We changed the podcast a bit! Stay tuned for the second season of EU Watchdog Radio!

During the current and almost over EU legislature, the rise of far-right forces has come hand in hand with the stigmatisation, harassment, and violence against women and LGBTQI+ people. In this episode, Corporate Europe Observatory researcher and campaigner Kenneth Haar unveils the link between ultraconservative US foundations and right-wing forces across Europe. In the crosshairs outstands the Al...

In a milestone win for civil society, the EU will withdraw from the climate-wrecking Energy Charter Treaty (or ECT). The ECT was designed in the 1990s to favour industry’s interests, and was a powerful weapon to obstruct the kind of phaseout of fossil fuels needed to avoid catastrophic climate change. It should never have existed in the first place. In this episode of EU Watchdog Radio, Joana Louç...

For the first time in seventeen years, the European Gas Conference was cancelled—or, at least, postponed. However, this did not stop CEO from travelling all the way to Vienna to meet with climate activists and campaigners at the People’s Summit, the counter-summit of the Gas Conference. This episode was recorded live in the capital city of Austria. Marcella Via spoke with CEO’s researchers and cam...