the single market monitoring infrastructure projects a 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 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 richards and. 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 it 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. 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 fact which started the process of the single market. the crux of the. as follows no 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 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. 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. we scheduled the book launch for the big use some of 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 friend started arriving but. very little or no press showed up. so unfortunately our first public events was really not noticed by the pope.

jumped to the most ambitious mockery of rules a key exercise the strength of the rule system of multilateral trade. and perhaps most important the establishment of a stronger broadly. brain organized. by started to work on the financial services gats negotiations and that was really the time where i discovered this is we stand like we'd like to do that. we've come to the end of the most reaching negotiation ever. the negotiators of the one hundred seventeen governments and i'm a cheap to make stuart recent certs. with your approval there for my gavel the euro

why rodas can no. telemarketers it. was becoming a 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 the opinion was complaining that 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 a garden dr seuss' 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 when charlie and 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 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 institution cannot only rely on the information given by the member states and the experts in the finance ministry i think need to get the 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 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 help us to decide i 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 for . the for. 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 imagine at four 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 to be interned commission had to resign because of the massive fraud several commissions 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 disallows of the c.s. around so that we will enter into a new phase a negotiation for you is a libra zation of the service. i remember that commissioner let me as being blocked 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 v.i.p.'s here can do its job. many n.g.o.s say that in itself 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 else 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 it dinner at the friends if you're a she's really a very big brussels organize a friend who looks also 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 i build on what we've already done. i mean coolest thing trying. to entice him brussels are feeling a part of the vacuum that exists so that you would have thought that there was no european public to base. to syntax to step into that vacuum and they are the forums in which something like a debate happens inside the process but. there are national politicians here

european politicians mysterious civil servant said the dreaded you know it cracks a good diplomat story of businessmen good professors from universities will still see people wondering about bristles it's a bit like it really everybody will still want to know when i will to be honest 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 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 is one of them why not. have had think tanks in brussels that were directly from the party or oil industry and that we're working to. sort out about. it's whether there is such

a thing as climate change and whether it's important for governments to x. 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 books the financial backers of this n.g. who were microsoft and it's the people. in the end it's all about money in the crossing it's one person one vote but 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 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 shale. potentially deadly blizzard taking aim for the northeast expected to hit starting 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 properly or today it was very sticky you can see it start to become much more patrie down. the bottom

line there's still a lot of snow out here the place for snowball fight. peace and it has been a pretty incredible day there and the record snowfall throughout what's it been like. to be driving them urgency. download the official. yourself choose your language stream quality and enjoy your favorite. if you're away from your television just. not with your mobile device you can watch on t.v. anytime anywhere. so one of my first testimony 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 all 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 all. 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 how 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 its in autumn two thousand and four we wrote an open letter to the commission president and. also 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 thing 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 to all the presidents. of the commission. and suddenly towards the end of february we were contacted by the official same colors commissioner from estonia responsible for administration inviting us to come over.

so we went to mr collis 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 and heads in the sand mystical as a brochure and that made us smile it was a lovely planet guide 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 as mr race and commission and i really souls at services so weak suspicion surrounding said this isn't making in european union. of course i. say establish for myself a purpose do a little to reduce the suspicions. told her step he was going to launch this

european transparency initiative and we immediately saw that these fruits are because political opportunity. as an outsider to brussels business he also had a clear sense for how the ordinary citizen about brussels. and some colors to get on with the lobby in the street. european commission is going to its that's activities of interests representatives are legitimate and offer a valuable input into decision making process about scenes have to happen in a transparent manner the commission can see that is that these important to know all 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 a speech and. of course outlined main principles of transparency

initiative which should be done and of course met. with the excitement 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 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 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 european commission in the european parliament to tell the truth i was very impressed with some color so when i first started working with him in the european commission some callers helped really the

whole significance of needing transparency. he was very adamant at first about setting up a mandatory disclosure system ever full transparency but halfway through the process some colors came up against the political reality and. after four years of struggle and political fights and exhausted commissioner answered the stage to finally launch a lobby register a group. with no moon. so quite that remarkable moment today. three years ago. i proposed. to set up the register of lobbyists in all the enhanced on spare sand and legitimacy else he'll decision making process and it raises the focus from today. so we proposed voluntary solution because i was i am

convinced that cease would suit full or all expect basins and i async that two days there is a very important moment of cultural change. concerning zeese. aspect of this isn't making in european institutions. some cause 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 known 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. and i must say that on the reading of my easing mccarty nashik bills were over each disappeared as found on this and lost new ground. we looked into the independence of this. independent groups and we found some less honest things. the lover she is the co-chair of a financial lobby organization. linked to lehman brothers. greeting to citi group leasing to goldman sachs. mccarty

nuber and bunch of always are notorious deregulators. and paris for none this 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 was one of the closest advisors to the bush administration he was also involved in the liberal think tanks and brussels and poland and the u.k. . all the single of these wise men 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 here are the main thing that happened last a lot of public money was flowing to the banks. is the. are

a. rod. 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 the year. galatians 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 of not wanting. you always have about 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 to fasten on on the motorway because people are not respected elders because the stronger take this space this is this is human nature what we have done to go and make sure that we live together is by creating legislation in place by creating an authority that

everyone respect.

let me let me as one would all let me ask you a question from. here on this network is where we're having a debate we have our knives out. with a very is this right it's a bad thing there's a get here in a situation where be i don't agree to talk about the name of me. zero

. zero. zero on. the job this is a confidante as was sworn in as men as well as interim president.