and finally i believe it was on my seventh meeting with keith when i said to keith you know i can write up out there so i can have all these different interviews but i really want to see the pieces of paper think you've said to me well you know i have a bunch of cardboard boxes in the basement of the we haven't opened them they're from the earlier days we just we just put this material in the boxes and of course and you know in the back of my mind i was very excited thinking this is it. murray a 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 fact but 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 two you were presented sixty percent of western europe's industrial output this was blackmail. why did not a single government say anything about the decker tailbacks. or about the other friend start followed. they were elected representatives. but we felt that this was a betrayal and we wanted to do something. this it was important for

a bigger public to know about this and we decided to publish a book. besides collecting dots and we started to make interviews. undercover interviews. finally in spring one thousand nine hundred seventy we assembled the results of our investigations and interviews into a report europe. rescheduled the book launch for the big use from it and. all the media would be there we were excited as. we had prepared the book launch and half an hour before the first friend started to write. very little or no press or showed up. so unfortunately our first public events was really not noticed as part of. the job of the players down this road block a very groove

a key exercise the strengthening of the rules based system of multilateral crate. and perhaps most important be establishment of a stronger broadly based well trained organizer. i started to work on the financial side assist gats negotiations that were really the time when 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 and seventeen governments and richie an extraordinary success. with your approval therefore my gavel to europe.

the internal market of the room was becoming any very important market rich market was a high g.d.p. per capita and that when the european union was going outside and negotiate as a bloc they had a real power because it was a biggest exporter the biggest importer the biggest foreign investor. but so in britain the trade commission of european union was complaining that i with every time he was going to negotiate with the united states in front of him we see is counterpart over here you have your office and garden audiences for three or four years and on his back he has c.e.o.'s of big bangs 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 expert in the finance ministry is by they need to get the information directly from the the bank that the insurance company. you know so then at a point in time european commission or so in britain decided ok there was association i'm not really serious about this issue i am going to invite for dinner fourteen see you 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. it's about

seventy percent of the g.d.p. in europe so we're invited to bunch of forty of those. and. after dinner i 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 with and pushes them it's not so tool commission is thirsty for ideas from the cannot make acton's to help us to decide what to put food which 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 used by the private sector came up and became managing director of the open services for. relief. in general night after nine we had. eleven months to

prepare seattle first every cio i mean it's your conference after the creation of this organization to manage for and the idea was that this meeting is going to lounge the millenium around that 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 metres 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 to salons of the c.s.

around so that we will enter into a new phase a negotiation for lever is a libra zation of service. i remember that commissioner let me as being blocked i mean yes we named her to enter his car but the car couldn't move because of those people they're just there and the policeman say please go away in five metres so that the v.i.p.'s here can do his job. many n.g.o.s say that yourself is a secret secret organisation having secret meetings you can commission all the everything is on their website i mean i am doing my job by contacting the commission and the officials responsible for my file if anybody else would like to do the same there's a phone number he's on the in the world 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. this is the annual dinner if the french if you're a teacher is really a very big brussels 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 with the right things to do wrong and how can i build on what we've already done. the inclusive thing trying. to introduce it in brussels are you feeling a part of the direction that exists now that you look at there is no european probably to greece. to syntax to step into that vacuum and be on the forums in which something like a debate happens inside the brussels body. there are national politicians here european politicians mysterious civil. said the dreaded you know it cracks

a good diplomat story of businessmen who get their faces from universities will soon see people wondering about bristles is exhibit a like you really if you would be told that one and not well when i will to be on to moderate my job is to keep it come to. think tanks are not themselves lobbyists but they are part of the landscape of lobbying because companies use them to transmit their demands from their their perspectives and all of these are heavily dependent on industry from the. simple people are sponsoring it microsoft is one of the american business presently knew it mike itself is one of them why not. have had think tanks in the process that were directly from the by the oil industry and that were working to sort out about whether to or such a thing as climate change and whether it's important for governments to act is 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 a mess if 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 as you hope for microsoft and as a people. in the end it's all about money in the crossing it's one person one vote but in the brussels basis 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 . by whom and on which issues. we need to put this on the democrats control it

has to be made visible want to roll is of lobbying the decision making what is to role of a large company like monsanto or shell. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so for lengthly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. i never knew adam lanza in person but i was in the same high school as adam he was younger than me just a little bit younger. i always thought he was different i always intercity funny he

rarely talks and you don't he was a shy kid. i don't know anyone who is friends with him i also don't know of anyone who is particularly mean to the what i do know is that it was very clear that this person was not like everybody else. can imagine the level of mental illness that would be present to murder children. america's you know so when you go on news there would be an american behind every tree with a gun. for kids growing up in this environment is good for them at an early age to least see the gun and respect it because they need to know what kind of damage it can do. this is our first task as a society. keeping our children safe. this is how we will be judged.

i. think three. and.

so one of my first testimonies before the european commission was a 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 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 obvious here in the united states may be corrupt 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 in two thousand and four the new commission came in and for the first time ten eastern european countries were part. of the first burst of commission started its in autumn two thousand and four we wrote an open letter to the commission president jose manuel barroso 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 that. the response was a very short formal letter saying we received your letter sent you very interesting . but no substantial response. so we sent the same letter to all the presidents of the commission. and suddenly

towards the end of february we were contacted by the office of the same color as commissioner from estonia responsible for administration inviting us to come over. so we went to mr callouses office which was somewhere in 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. is the colors of the brochure and that made us smile it was a lovely plan of god 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 souls that is so weak suspicion surrounding so this isn't making in european

union. of course i. say establish for myself a purpose to reduce the suspicions. told a step he was going to launch this european transparency initiative and we immediately saw that these fruits are political. as an outside business he also had a clear sense for how the. process. to get on with the lobby in the street. european commission is going to its that's activities of interests represent that they. are valuable input into decision making process have to happen in a transparent manner the commission can see this these important to know. what the interests they represent and against what financial background. of

say efforts to do creates a speech or to make the speech. of course outlined main principles of transparency initiative which will be done. of course. of controversial reactions and if you know without financial transparency we'll never find out who really is behind the campaign. a little bit more control on ourselves wouldn't harm our reputation with our voters that. transparency must not for closer contact with real life with interest groups or groups without interest thank you commissioner callous and certainly understand this. 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 it was brought out about half

a dozen different times to testify before the year. being commissioner in 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 callers helped really are sure the whole significance of needing transparency. he was very adamant at first about setting up a mandatory disclosure system having full transparency but halfway through the process some colors came up against the political reality and. after free years of struggle and political fight and exhausted commissioner colorless and took the stage to finally launch a lobby register a good. woman known or often or. so quite that remarkable moment today. three years ago i proposed to set up the register of lobbyists in order to enhance transparency and

and legitimacy and i want you decision making process and. focus from today. so we proposed voluntary solution because i was i am i am convinced that cease would suit for all expectations and i think that two days there is a very important moment of cultural change. concerning zeese. aspect of this is 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 have 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 that 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. shackle our share their animosity or unloading my easing mccarty nashik culture over each to separate us from now on this and last nuba. we looked into the independence of this independent group and we found some s honestly thinks. the lever she is the co-chair of

a financial lobby organisation. is linked to lehman brothers. greeting to citi group leasing to goldman sachs. accounting nuber and bunch of always are notorious deregulators. and paris fernandes works to provide financial market intelligence to big banks. free of the eight were directly linked to american banks all of which were directly involved in causing the crisis. which in addition closely into american right wing think tanks like the cato institute this 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. . other similarities wise men there was in favor of strict regulation

now the single one of them was really independence and defectors. is it wise man on overcoming the financial crisis was still the main thing that happened last time a lot of public money was flowing to the banks. here since. 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 well 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 that this what we europeans had wanted. wasn't really naive to have a european dream. in the human nature and yet not only could you always have the but site somewhere. and we need to make sure that we keep only the good and therefore you need regulation. when you live in a society you half truths because otherwise people are going too fast on the motorway because people in

a respected elss because the stronger take this case is. this is a human nature what we have done to go and make sure that we live together is by creating new just mentioned things by creating an authority that everyone respects her.

and. finishes a secret laboratory to mccurry was able to build a grenade most sophisticated robot which on fortunately doesn't give a darn about anything kim's mission to teach the creation why it should care about humans and grid which is why you should care only on the r.-g. dot com.

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