maria green calls came across a telling. it was from visit decker see your phillips. in december nine hundred eighty five 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 tallackson is as follows you know we don't know what you're 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 fred the year to year we presented sixty percent of western europe's

industrial output this was blackmail. why did not a single government say anything about the deck or taylor hicks. or about the other frets that followed. they were elected representatives. but we felt that this was a betrayal and we wanted to do something about it it's important for a bigger public to know about this and we decided to publish a book. and besides collecting data we started to make interviews. undercover interviews. and finally in spring one thousand nine hundred seventy we assembled the results of our investigations and interviews into a report europe. was scheduled to launch for the big you summit in. all the media would be there we were excited as. we had prepared the

book launch and half an hour before the first friends started arriving. very little or no pressure showed up. so unfortunately our first public events must really not notice as part of. the job of the most ambitious marketer being ruled by a key exercise the strengthening of the rule system of multilateral craig. and perhaps most important the establishment of a stronger broadly based. brain organizer.

i started to work on the financial services cats negotiations and that was really the time where i discovered this is we just like we'd like to do that. we've come to the end of the most far reaching trade negotiation ever. the negotiators of the hundred seventeen governments and ritchie to make stored in recent sets. with your approval therefore my gavel the euro why rodas can no. telemarketers. was becoming a very important market reach market with the high g.d.p. per capita and that when the european union was going outside to negotiate as a bloc they had real power because it was a biggest exporter the biggest importer the biggest foreign investor. but so in britain the trade commission if you're paying it was complaining. that i with every

time he was going to negotiate with the united states in front of him we see his counterpart over here you have your office and garden system of seriousness and on his back he has c.e.o.'s of big banks a big insurance company telling please do that for me please do that for us but winterland britain was turning his back to see where this report was he was actually having only some ministers saying don't do this don't do that and please do that it only but not more and he was really not very happy you know because we discovered that there is a whole world of lobbyists in washington to tell their government what they want in the trade negotiations and we thought this is the way we have to go we have to do something like that the european institutions is asking for it these institutions cannot only rely on the information given by the member states and the experts in the finance ministry by the need to get information directly from the the banks or the insurance companies. so then at

a point in time european commission a so in britain decided ok there was association i'm not really serious about this issue i am going to invite for dinner fourteen c.-u. of the major services companies in europe so it's about big banks big telecom big insurance big decisions services big transport services big tourism companies when you take all the different sectors it is actually making about seventy percent of the g.d.p. in europe so we invited the bunch of forty of those. and. after dinner he said well now that you've got some some food by the commission you only saw things you have to do something for me people sometimes think that the commission comes up with ideas out of the blue pushes them it's not a tool could be thirsty for ideas from could not be acton's to hopeless. to decide what to put food is in the interests of europe.

this is where the idea of creating a network of association and companies pushing for the trade in service is use by the private sector came up i became managing director of the open services for. relief. in general to nine we had. eleven months to prepare seattle first deborah cio i mean it's your conference us as a creation of this organization imagine at four and the idea was that this meeting is going to lounge the millenium brown that's so you britain had so much push for. britain never got to see how tall the inter commission had to resign because of the massive fraud several commissioners were involved in. the

millennium round itself took a completely unexpected turn. i was based in the hotel and as a conference was in the sheraton five hundred meters away and i have not been allowed to go out of the hotel because it was one protester blocking the door by lying. and it was a police officer beside him and asking can i go outside please i would like to go and do my job. i was going to assist disallowance of the c. s. around so that we will enter into a new phase a negotiation for liveries a libra zation of service. i remember that commissioner let me as been blocking i mean he has been able to enter he's caught but the car couldn't move because of those people they're just there and no policeman say please go away in five metres so that the v.i.p. here can do its job. many n.g.o.s say that we assess the. a secret secret

organization as in secret meetings you can commission all of the everything is on the website i mean i am doing my job by contacting the commission with officials responsible for my file if anybody else would like to do the same there's as their phone number is on the in the on the website i'm just doing my job and i don't have anything specific but is a commission has some relationship with the surface because it commission is willing to get some information from the services sectors before negotiating on their behalf because this is what we're talking about trade is done by companies not by n.g.o.s. b c c i knew a dinner at the french if you're a teacher is really a very big russians organization and lots and lots of people from different countries different jobs different walks of life who do all interested in. how can you develop how can we be right things to do wrong and how can we build

a lot we've already done. i mean coolest thing trying to. think tanks in brussels are you feeling a part of the vacuum that exists so that you would have thought that there was no european probably to greece. to syntax to step into that vacuum and the forums in which something like a debate happens inside the process bob. there are national politicians here european politicians mysterious civil servant said the dreaded you know it creates a dear good diplomat strip businessman good professors from universities will soon see more people wondering about bristles isn't a bit like you really everybody will still want to know. when i will actually be on the team even moderate my job is to keep in contact. sin tanks are not themselves lobbyists but they are part of the landscape of lobbying because companies use them to transmit their demands for. there their perspectives and it's all of these are

heavily dependent on industry funding. several people are sponsoring it microsoft is one of the american business presently in europe microsoft is one of them why not. have had think tanks in brussels that were directly from the by the oil industry and that were working to sort out about what's whether there is such a thing as climate change and whether it's important for governments to access to reduce c o two emissions. you can set up research institutes to provide you with. research that's kind of strengthens your position. you can launch message p.r. campaigns and flood the media with your information. what also happens is setting up fake n.g.o.s as happened in the big battle about the software patents law

suddenly there were these advertisements from an enduro that's said it was representing small and medium sized companies puts the financial backers of this n.g. over microsoft and disappear. in the end it's all about money in the it's one person one fold but in the brussels baseness it's one euro one faults the problem it's we don't know about the money behind politics we don't know how much is being spent on multi and by whom and on which issues. we need to put this on the democrats control it has to be made visible what's the role is of lobbying in the decision making what is the role of a large company like monsanto or shell. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so whole a plea you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of the. and realize that everything is. welcome to the big

picture. the mission of free accreditation three per cent for charges free arrangements free. three stooges free. download free blog playing video for your media projects a free media. dot com in.

the.

so one of my first testimonies before the european commission was a very very awakening experience. but. i had one commissioner interrupt me and say well we understand you had a problem in the united states with lobbying activities but he went on to say but you know this is brussels and this is europe we don't have that kind of activity going on here which just kind of floored me that anyone could be so naive. more that perhaps the fact of answer was ok i'll concede that a lot of these k. street lobbyists and the professional lobbyists here in the united states maybe corrupts however i know every major k. street lobby shop also has a lobby shop in brussels and so we're in your bed europe don't you want to know

if you think that we are so corruptible and so corrupting don't you want to know who we are and who's paying for us and what it is we're trying to get you to do for us. we have to decide to regulate lobbying for a long time. before the new commission came in and for the first time eastern european countries were part of. the first person commission started in autumn two thousand and four we wrote an open letter to the commission president. signed by over fifty n.g.o.s.

i would just like to say thank you. that's a very sincere thank you for the confidence which you just voiced and invested in me and i'd like to say to you that i understand this is a vote of confidence as also implying huge responsibility on my part and we are going to work hard give our all to serve europe to serve the institutions of the european union and to serve all our coast citizens of europe thing the response was a very short formal letter saying we have received your letter sent you very interesting. no substantial response. so it was sent a signal to all the presidents of the commission. and suddenly towards the end of february we were contacted by the same color as commissioner from estonia

responsible for administration in fighting us to come over. so we went to mr collis office which was at the top of the building. we didn't know what we had to expect from this meeting we had never been approached by a commission so in that sense it was very exciting were welcomed by mr cullison himself and one of his cabinet members and in this hand is the colors of the brochure and that made us smile it was a lovely planet got to brussels which was a tongue in cheek but a very critical look at industry lobbying in the u. written by eric and me in our our colleagues. when i started the commission and i really sold at several says so weak suspicion surrounding some decision making in european union. of course i. say establish for

myself a purpose do a little to reduce the suspicions. older step he was going to launch this european transparency initiative and we immediately saw that these fruits are because political opportunity. as an outsider was business he also had a clear sense for how the. process. and some colors to get on with the lobby in the street. european commission is going to its that's activities of interests represent that these are legitimate valuable input into decision making process have to happen in a transparent manner the commission can see that that these important to know their interest representatives are what the interests they represent and against what financial background. of say efforts to do creates

a speech at the makes the speech. of course outlined main principles of transparency initiative which should be done and it was of course met . with the excitement of controversial reactions and if you. without financial transparency we'll never find out who really is behind the campaigning stick. a little bit more control on ourselves wouldn't harm our reputation with our voters but it cannot be transparency must not for closer contact with real life with interest groups or groups without interest thank you commissioner callous and certainly understand. when the european union was considering the european transparency initiative they were looking for some advice as to how some of these achievements happened in the us and as a result i was brought out about half a dozen different times to testify before the european commission and the european

parliament to tell the truth i was very impressed with the same color as when i first started working with him in the european commission some call us helped really the whole significance of needing transparency. he was very adamant at first about setting up a mandatory disclosure system everything full transparency but halfway through the process some colors came up against the political reality and. after free years of struggle and political fights and exhausted commission and the stage to finally launch a lobby register a group. would little known or often. so quite that remarkable moment today. three years ago i proposed to set up a register of lobbyists in order to enhance transparency and and legitimacy and i

want you to see in making persists and. openness from today. so we proposed voluntary solution because i was i am comments that cease would suit full or. all expectations and i async said today's am is a very important moment of cultural change i am also an easy seven cease aspect of this isn't making in european institutions. and colors introduced a voluntary system against all recommendations by n.g.o.s and experts this was the best he could get. we have tried for over two years now to find out who had blocked colossus or original intention. where it's other commissioners the commission secretary and the lobbyist themselves.

one month after the financial crisis started in october two thousand and eight. appointed the independent high level group on financial supervision. the group was to work our proposals for the regulation of the financial markets and to find a way out of the financial crisis. eight so-called wise men were appointed to this group. struck a lower share and i must say that on the reading of my easing mccarty nashik culture over each disappeared as found on this and last nuba. we looked into the independence of this independent group and we found some less honest things. the lover she is the co-chair of

a financial lobby organization. linked to lehman brothers. gooding to citi group leasing to goldman sachs. mccarty nuber and bunch of always are notorious deregulators. and paris for nonis works to provide financial market intelligence to big banks. three of the eight were directly linked to american banks all of which were directly involved in causing the crisis. which in addition closely linked to american right wing think tanks like the cato institute was one of the closest advisors to the bush administration he was also involved in the earlier i think tanks in brussels and poland and the u.k. . of a single of these wise men there was in favor of strict regulation now the single one of them was really independence and the effect of these eight wise men on

overcoming the financial crisis was zero the main thing that happened last night a lot of public money was flowing to the banks. as if. this whole affair has a horrible sense of deserve all the same financial institutions that were bailed out with taxpayers' money i know making a fortune from greece's misfortune by those same taxpayers are paying the price in deep cuts to their salaries and social services. after twenty years of deregulation and liberalisation suddenly the european union herself was at the edge of being blown up. what is at stake is not

only the european union but also democracy and the future of the values that we hold dear. was a dis what we europeans had wanted. wasn't really naïve to have a european dream. it is in the human nature and you are not on the good you always have a bad side some. and we need to make sure that we keep only the good and therefore you need religion. when you live in a society you have groups because otherwise people are going too fast on the motorway because people have no respect to the elss because the stronger take this

place this is this is human nature what we have done to go and make sure that we live together is by create images lage advice by creating an authority that everyone respect. or. a.

story of. god are. just. don't tell me alabama. law. suits.

me leave. it to. lead mission and free accreditation free. for charges free the arrangements free. free. free. hold free blog plug in video for your media project a free media dog r t dot com you. will see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then something else you

hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you don't know . welcome to the big picture. just so.