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 monitoring infrastructure projects a flexible labor market deregulation downsized public services austerity measures and so on and so on the whole your liberal agenda for the basically our picture got confirmed by an american scholar stepping into the topic maria green cowles 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 about this i can have all these different interviews but i really want to see the pieces of paper he 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. came across a tell ex. 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 represented 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 it was 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. and undercover interviews. and finally in spring one thousand nine hundred seventy we assembled the results of our investigations and interviews into a report in europe. rescheduled the book launch for the big ego summit in them so that all the media would be there we were excited. we had prepared the book launch and half an hour before the first friends started arriving but. very little or no press.

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 by. threatening to organize very. by started to work on the financial services gats 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 richie vtam extraordinary success. with your approval therefore my gavel to your acquiring this can no. internal market that. was becoming a very important market reach 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 real power because it was a biggest exporter the biggest importer the biggest foreign investor. but so in britain the trade commission of the opinion was complaining as i was every time he was going to negotiate with the united states in front of him when we see his counterpart here you have your office in the garden dr seuss of the series and on his back he would have c.e.o.'s of big banks a big insurance company. telling please do that for me please do that for us but

when charlie and britain was turning his back to see where the support was he 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 because we discovered that there is a whole world of lobbyists in washington to tell the government what they want in the trade association. 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 in institutions cannot only rely on the information given by the member state and the expert in the finance ministry is why they need to get information directly from the the banks of the insurance company. so then at a point in time european commission a so in britain decided ok there was association and 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 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 that could be thirsty for ideas from could not make acton's to hopeless to decide want to put food. this is where the idea of creating a network of association and companies pushing for the trade in service if you. by

the private sector i came up i became managing director of the open services for. relief. in general night at nine we had. eleven months to prepare seattle first every cio i mean it's your conference as a creation of this organization imaginative 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 to turn 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 interim on tape and there's 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 protest or 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 disallows of the c.s. around so that we will enter into a new phase a negotiation for liveries a libra zation of the 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 the policeman said please go away in five metres so that the high v.i.p. here can do its job. many n.g.o.s say that yourself is a secret secret organisation having secret meetings you can commission all the way everything is on their 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 a full. numbers 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 cheese really a very big brussels organization a lot so also people from different countries different jobs different walks of life who all interested in. how can europe develop how can we be right things to do wrong and how can i build on what we've already done. i mean coolest thing trying to. think tanks in brussels are feeling a part of the vacuum that exists at the e.u. level that there is no european probably to base. to syntax to step into that

vacuum and the forums in which something like a debate happens inside the brussels bubble. there are national politicians or european politicians or a serious civil servant said the dreaded you know it creates a dear good diplomat story of businessmen good professors from universities will still see people wondering about bristles easy to read like a really everybody will still want to know. when i will to be on the team the lot of 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. several people are sponsoring it microsoft is one of them american business is presently new at microsoft. it's one of the why not.

i have had think tanks in brussels that were directly funded by the oil industry and that we're working to sold out about whether it or such a thing as climate change and whether it's important for governments to access to it you see 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 of the software patents law suddenly there were these advertisements from an enduro that's said it was representing small and medium sized companies but the financial backers of this n.g. over microsoft and disappear. in the end it's all about money in the uk

risky it's one person one fold but in the brussels baseness it's one euro one fault 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 cut 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. we

speak your language. news programs and documentaries in spanish as to your. news a little tentative angles keaton's stories. i'll teach spanish find out more visit. wealthy british style.

markets. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy mix culture for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines two kinds a report. claims. 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. why a more perhaps effective 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 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 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 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 a similar letter to all the presidents of the commission. and suddenly towards the end of february we were contacted by the official same color as commissioner from

estonia responsible for administration inviting us to come over. so we went to mr collis his 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 we welcomed by mr cullison himself and one of his cabinet members. was the colors of the brochure and that made us smile it was a lovely plan of god to brussels which was. very critical look at industry lobbying in the written by eric and me in our our colleagues. when i started the. commission and i really souls are so weak suspicion surrounding so this isn't making in european union. of course i. say establish for

myself a purpose to reduce these suspicions. he was going to launch this european transparency initiative and we immediately. become political. business. sense for. us. to get on with the industry. european commission is going to its that's activities of interests represented. the decision making process have to happen in a transparent manner the commission can see that's 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. with the excitement of reactions and if you know without financial transparency we'll never find out who really is behind the campaign stick. a little bit more control on ourselves wouldn't harm our reputation with our voters. transparency must not for closer contact with real life with interest groups or groups without interest thank you commissioner callous and certainly understand this. 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 u.s. and as a result it was brought out about half a dozen different times to testify before the europe. commission 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 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 carlos answered the stage to finally launch a lobby register a good. would know them. all off and on. so i am 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 process and. openness from today. so we

proposed voluntary solution because i was i am i am convinced that cease would suit for all expect basins 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. 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 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 and i must say are unloading my easing mccarty nashik culture over each recipient as found on this and last number . we looked into the independence of this independent group and we found some less honestly thinks. the legacy is the co-chair of a financial lobby organisation. linked to lehman brothers. greeting to citi group

leasing to goldman sachs. mccarty 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 linked to american right wing think tanks like the cato institute which was one of the closest advisers 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 the effect of these. 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. is 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 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. that human nature and you 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 case is this. this is a human nature what we have done to go and make sure that we live together is by

creating a just lynch thanks by creating an authority that everyone respects. new

year's celebrations on the move without the traditional t.v. all festive food surprising meetings and new adventures stories of love found and love lost our russians teach foreigners to celebrate then biggest holiday of the year for must go to st petersburg by train over new year there may be miracles. we are facing a lot of problems. because no one thought the drinking school. part. what's not shown up is a law in the local needs you might want to community l.n.g.

most will be used at least. give dead dunford far up artist i was fights about how much fights. fights. arrived. a little bit. cold. blood little money. good speed. her. and i. wish.

him luck good. luck good. luck and. come out on a little. kid . iller. illinois. was.