we've come to occupy your building. possibly they wanted a confrontation possibly they wanted me to ring up the police have the police come and threw them out. didn't seem to be a good idea at all learned the european way with brussels business. in the uk kristie it's one person one fault but in the brussels business it's one euro one fault. every six months there was an e.u. summit and every six months that your team it's just a few days before. location and they were kept confidential the booking was made two years in advance. left behind was a clear message to the following you summit on the heads of governments

a few days later. adopt the single market the monetary union infrastructure projects the flexible labor market deregulation downsize public services austerity measures and so on and so on the whole your liberal agenda for them basically our picture got confirmed by an american scholar stepping into the topic maria green call's i was interested in doing something about europe and something about the european union i started talking with some of the c.e.o.'s and in particular 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 i'd talk with other individuals and then i'd come. back with more questions and

sometimes tease out the answers and sometimes they didn't 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 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 tell it. it was from visit decker see your phillips. in december one thousand 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 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 telex. or about the other friend start followed. they were elected representatives.

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. 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 evil summit in them so that 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 was really not noticed as part of.

the job due to the players down this road block today being a group of a key exercise the strengthening of the rules based system of multilateral craig. and perhaps most important the establishment of a strong broadly based well trained organizer. i started to work on the financial services cats negotiations and that was really the time when i discovered this it's interesting and like we'd like to do that. we've come to the end of the most far reaching trade negotiation at work. the negotiators of the hundred and seventeen governments and i'm a cheap to make story. with your approval there my god will be your.

internal market of you was becoming any very important market rich market with 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 was every time he was going to negotiate with the united states in front of him you will see is counterpart over here you have your office and gardeners through three or four years and on his back he would have 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 its report was it was actually having only some minister 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 with you and that we discovered that there is a whole world of lobbyists in washington to tell their government what they want in the trade. and we thought this is the way we have to go we have to do something like that you can institution is asking for it easy you can situation cannot only rely on the information given by the member states and the expert in the finance ministry is why they need to get information directly from the the bank that the insurance companies. get out. 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 a big banks big telecom big insurance big decisions services big transport.

this is 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 the 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 with and pushes them it's not a tool the commission is thirsty for ideas from the cannot make acton's to help us 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 used by the private sector came up and became managing director of the open services for. relief. in general to nine we had. eleven months to

prepare seattle first every cio i mean it's your conference after the creation of this organization in action at four and the idea was that this meeting is going to lounge is amazing a round that's britain had so much push for. britain never got to see how tall the entire 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 hilton 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 i am asking can i go outside please i would like

to go and do my job. i was going to assist to so loud of the c.s. around so that we will enter into a new phase a negotiation for lee for his eight leavers ational service. i remember that commissioner let me ask being blocked i mean he has been able 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 meters 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 the website i mean i am doing my job by contacting the commission 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. we see you see the new dinner if the french if you're a teacher is really a very big organization and lots and lots of people from different countries different jobs different walks of life who all interested in. how can you develop with the right things to do wrong and how can you build a lot we've already done. the inclusive thing trying. thing to use it in brussels are you feeling a part of the vacuum that exists now that you were able to there is no european promptly to greece. to syntax to step into that vacuum and the forums in which something like a debate happens inside the brussels board. they're all national politicians here

european politician or a civil servant said and the dreaded you know it cracks a good diplomat story of businessmen who get their faces through universities will still see people wondering about bristles isn't a bit like it really everybody will still want to know. when i will simply be on to moderate my job is 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 from their their perspectives and all of these are heavily dependent on industry funding. simple people are sponsoring it microsoft is one of the american reason this is present in europe microsoft is one of the 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 whether there are such

a thing as climate change and whether it's important for governments to access to it you seem to 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. home or microsoft and disappear. in the end it's all about money in the macross here it's one person one fault but in the brussels basin if it's one euro one faults the problem it's winter. don't know about some money behind politics we

don't know how much is being spent on lobbying 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 the decision making what is to role of a large company like monsanto or shell.

wealthy british style stock. markets why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines in two counties a report. please

. 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 lobbyists 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 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 planet guide to brussels which was

a tongue in cheek but 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 out several says so weak suspicion surrounding said decision making in european union. of course i. say establish for myself a purpose to reduce the suspicions. told to step he was going to launch this european transparency initiative and we immediately sorted things who serve because political opportunity. as an outsider was business he also had a clear sense for how do you want. to get on with the lobby industry. european commission is going to it's that's activities of interest representatives are legitimate and valuable input into the

decision making process have to happen in a transparent manner the commission can see this that these important to know there's three percent of 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 should be done and it was. a lot of controversial reactions on if you know without financial transparency we'll never find out who really is behind the campaign sticked. 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 i 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 usher the whole significance of needing transparency. he was very adamant at first about setting up a mandatory disclosure system 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 call us and took the stage to finally launch a lobby register a good. woman known or asked and.

so quite that remarkable moment today. three years ago i proposed to set up a register of lobbyists and in order to enhance transparency and and legitimacy i want sam neill decision making process and. openness from today. so we proposed voluntary solution because i was i am convinced that cease would suit for all expect basins and i think that today's is a very important moment of cultural change. concerning zeese. aspect of this is in making in european institutions. some colors introduced a voluntary system against all recommendations by n.g.o.s and the 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 to an independent high level group on from mention 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 and i must say are unloading my

easing mccarty nashik culture over each recipient as found on this and last nuclear . we looked into the independence of this independent group and we found some mesan issue things. the lover she is the co-chair of a financial lobby organisation. limb to limb and brother's. greeting 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. free of the eight were directly linked to american banks all of which were directly involved in causing the crisis. which in addition it's closely linked to 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 not a single one of them was really independence and the effect of the. is it wise man on overcoming the financial crisis was still the main thing that happened last night a lot of public money was flowing to the banks. to see if. this author 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 while 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. ones that this what we europeans had wanted. wasn't really naive to have a european dream. is 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 their respective elss because the stronger take this basis is. this is a human nature what we have done to go and make sure that we live together is by creating richest nation thanks by creating an authority that everyone respect her her.

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