deregulation downsize 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 brink owl'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 about this 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. came across or tell x. . it was from visit decker see your philips. december ninety five he wrote to the heads of state just before the signing of the single european tags 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 us. market

program then you have given us no choice but perhaps take our business elsewhere. this was a clear fred the year t. 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. rescheduled the book 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 press showed up. so unfortunately our first public events was really not noticed by the pope. jumped into the writers down this road block today and ruled a key exercise the strength of the rules by just.

and perhaps most important be establishment of a stronger broadly. brain organizer. i started to work on the financial services cats negotiations and that was really the time where i discovered this is we'd like we'd like to do that. we've come to the end of the most. legal situation. the negotiators of the one hundred seventeen governments and i'm a cheap to mix door recent service. with your approval therefore my gavel to your acquiring. the internal market of you was becoming a 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 commissioner through 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 and garden down to six fields and on his back he would have c.e.o.'s of big banks a big insurance companies telling please do that for me please do that for us but winterland britain was turning his back to see where his report 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. that. we discovered that there is a whole world of lobbyists in washington to tell. government what they want in the

trade it was here. and we thought this is the way we have to go we have to do something like that the european institution is asking for it these institutions cannot only rely on the information given by the member states and the expert in the finance ministry i think need to get the information directly from the the banks of the insurance company. so they're not a point in time european trade 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 dissipations 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 to 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 traditionally is thirsty for ideas from the actons 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 is viewed by the private sector came up and became managing director of the open services firm. in general to nine we had. eleven months to prepare seattle first. ministerial conference after the creation of this organization in. metaphor and the

idea was that this meeting is going to lounge the millenium brown that's so you know britain had so much push for. britain never got to see how tall the inter commission had to resign because of the massive frauds several commissioners were involved in. the millennium round itself took a completely unexpected turn. i was based in the hotel 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 ground 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 as a louse of the c s around so that we will enter into a new phase a negotiation for liver is

a liver is ation 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 say please go away in five metres so that the high 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 way everything is on the website i mean i am doing my job by contacting the commission with officials responsible for my file if anybody as would like to do the same there's a phone number he's on the in the on the website i'm just doing my job and i don't have anything specific but if the commission has some relationship with us if it is because it commission is willing to get some information from the services sector is 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 friends if you're a she's really a very big brussels organize a tree and look at salsa people from different countries different jobs different walks of life who do all interested in. how can you develop that would be the right thing to do wrong and how can i build a lot we've already done. i mean coolest thing trying to. think things in brussels are feeling a part of the vacuum that exists so that you would have thought that there was no european probably the case. to syntax to step into that vacuum and they are the forums in which something like a debate happens inside the process bubble. there are national politicians doing european politician or a serious civil servant said the dreaded you know it cracks a good good diplomat story a businessman professes the muti of a sentence we'll still see people wondering about bristles easy to read like you

really if you would be told one and not well when i would simply be honored to be 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 hence all of these are heavily dependent on the industry from the. simple people are sponsoring it microsoft is one of the american business person to do it microsoft is one of the why not. i have had think tanks in brussels that were directly from the party or 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 have access to as 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 a big battle about the software patents law suddenly toward 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 as a people. in the end it's all about money in the christie it's one person one fold in the brussels baseness it's one euro one fault the problem is we don't know about the money behind politics we don't know how much is being spent on the wealthy 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 wealthy british style some kind. of. market why not. can they. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max conjure for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into kinds a report. mission . couldn't take three. four charges three. major and

three. three. tight three. old free broadcast clothing video for your media project free media and on to our teeth dot com. 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. when 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 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

. no substantial response. so we sent a signal 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 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. is the colors of the. brochure and that made us smile it was a lovely plan it 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 to reduce the suspicions. told to step he was going to launch this european transparency initiative and we immediately saw that these who serve because political opportunity. as an outsider to brussels business he also had a clear sense for how the ordinary citizen presence. and some colors to get on with the lobby in the street. 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 that that these important to know. the present that these are 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 of course met . with. a lot of controversial reactions and if you know 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 that look the transparency must not for closer contact with real. life with interest groups or groups without interest thank you commissioner callus will

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 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 having 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 commissioners and set the stage to finally launch a lobby register a good. wood moon moon and the.

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 don't see you decision making process and. openness from today. so we proposed voluntary solution because i was i am comments 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 decision making in european institutions. sinclair's 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 alice's origin or 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. shocked a lot and i must say. i'm

a weeding out my easing mccarty nashik culture over each recipient as fernandes and last nuba. we looked into the independence of this independent group and we found some less honestly things. the lever she is the co-chair of a financial lobby organisation. linked to lehman brothers. greeting to citi group leasing to goldman sachs. accounting nuber and bunch of always are notorious deregulators. and paris for numbers 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. in addition 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 earthing times in brussels and poland and the u.k. . of a single of these wise men who was in favor of strict regulation now the single one of them was really independence and the effect of the is it wise man on overcoming a financial crisis was here are the main thing that happened last a lot of public money was flowing to the banks. as 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 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 a dis what we europeans had wanted. wasn't really naive to have a european dream. in the human nature and yet not only. you always have but sites on mine. and we need to make sure that we keep only the good and therefore you need

regulation. when you live in a society you have groups because otherwise people are going too fast on the motorway because people have not respected elders because this trauma takes place this is this is a human nature what we have done to go and make sure that we live together is by creating niches lage the base by creating an authority that everyone respect.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so horror langley you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm trying hard welcome to the big picture. potentially deadly blizzard taking aim for the northeast it's expected to hit

stunning in a few hours from new york to maine we have team coverage of the storm. but what we're watching is the very heavy snow moving into boston proper earlier today it was very sticky you can see it start to become much more connery down to the bottom line there is still a lot of snow out here a good place for snowball fight. jason it is going to be pretty incredible day there and even record snowfall throughout what's been like nobody's luxury driving lessons some emergency vehicles are exceptional. download the official application to yourself choose your language stream quality and enjoy your favorites from alzheimer's if you're away from your television on a pole it just doesn't matter about what your mobile device says you can watch r.t.

anytime anywhere. see. the game. the bat.