EU Watchdog Radio

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 offici...

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...

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 AREThis podcast is produced by CEO and Counter Balance. Both NGOs raise awareness on the importance of good g...

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...

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...

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 lau...

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 d...

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...

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-part...

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 stil...

podcast 37 on Launch of Lobbyfacts with Lucy and Vicky Cann

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 s...

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, ad...

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...

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 pu...

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 im...

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 w...

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, system...

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 corporat...

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 doe...

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...

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 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 G...