more about the other frets that followed. they were elected representatives. but we felt 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. rescheduled the launch for the big east summit in them so that all the media would be there we were excited as. we had prepared the book launch and how far before the first friends started arriving.

very little or no pressure showed up. so unfortunately a first probably given it's most really not noticed as part of. the jump to the right down this road block a very groove a key exercise the strength of the room system of multilateral crate. and perhaps most simple the establishment of a stronger broadly basine welding for a new organ i was very. i started to work on the financial services cats negotiations that were really a time when i discovered it's interesting and why we need to do. we've come to the

end of the most. legal situation. the negotiators in seventeen governments an. extraordinary success. with your approval there my gavel to europe why row. in telemarketing. was becoming any very important market reach market with the 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 european union was complaining that i would every time he was going to negotiate with the united states in front of him we see his counterpart over here you have your office and gardener observes through the stories and on his back he has 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 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 you know 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 these institutions 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 banks of the company. you know so then at a point in time european commission or so in britain decided ok there is association i'm not really serious about this issue i am going to invite. for

dinner fourteen. 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 the bunch of forty of those. and. after the dinner i 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 with pushes them it's not so tool commission is thirsty for ideas from cannot make acton's to help us to decide what to put food. 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 i became managing director of the open services for. relief. in general in atlanta nine we had. eleven months to prepare seattle first. 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 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 hotel and there's a conference was. in the sheraton five hundred meters away and i have not been

allowed to go out of the hotel because there was one protest looking to my life 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 a sister's allowance of the c. s. around so that we will enter into a new phase in negotiation oliver is a libra zation of the service. i remember that commissioner let me as been blocking me yes we name for 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 the 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 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 believe already done. the inclusive thing trying. thing to do so in brussels are feeling a part of the vacuum that exists at the. that there is 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 brussels bubble. there are national politicians here european politician or a serious civil servant said and the dreaded you know it cracks a good diplomat story a businessman get their faces through the universe into its will still see people wondering about bristles it's a bit like it really everybody will still want to not read it when i will to be on to the 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. civil pinkness sponsoring it microsoft is one of the american business person to do it microsoft is one of them 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 sweaters or 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 her 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 and she hopes for microsoft and has had people. in the end it's all about money in

the ocracy it's one person one fold in the brussels business 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 lobbying 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 the role of a large company like monsanto or shell. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so 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.

sigrid laboratory to mccurry was able to build a new its most sophisticated robot which all unfortunately doesn't give a dollar amount anything tunes mission to teach music creation why it should care about humans in the world this is why you should care only dog. victims multiply here each day. it's very profitable to invest in colombia with the very profitable it is a very high return on investment. is a good poem he said but i've been working in this area for thirty years and i've always had to pay the arm groups in a meeting that is the managers who change their name and strategy but just tell the same murderous. suspects to. no comment what you have

to say about that mr president. the president. i won't give an interview i'm sorry but no. investigation is a dead. says you can stop your bullshit and keep quiet or else you'll suffer the consequences. even us and your bodyguards to watch themselves too because the same goes for them. regards from go see i've never heard of such a case as ours are so much money and gold still so many. for all the gold in colombia on our t.v. .

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. like war 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 maybe corrupts however i know every major k. street lobby shop also has a lobby shop in brussels and so we're in. or bad 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 burst of commission started its 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 has 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 officer of same call us 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 were welcomed by mr cullison himself and one of his cabinet members and heads in the sand mystical is not a brochure and that made us smile it was a lovely planet guide to brussels which was a tongue in cheek but very critical that a look at industry lobbying in the u. written by eric and me in our our colleagues. when i started as a mistress and commission and i really souls at several says 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. must hold a step he was going to launch this european transparency initiative and we immediately sold at these fruits or because political opportunity. as an outsider to brussels business he also had a clear sense for how the ordinary citizen brussels. and some colors took it on with the lobby industry. european commission is going to its that's activities of interests representatives are legitimate and offer a valuable input into decision making process about saints have to happen in a transparent manner the commission can see this that these important to know always enters the present that it's all what the interests they represent and against what financial background my. say efforts to do creates

a speech at the makes a speech and. of course outlined main principles of transparency any city which should be done and the posts 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 callers 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 every full transparency but halfway through the process some callers 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 or off and. so quite that remarkable moment today. three years ago i proposed to set up a trade. is that of lobbyists i mean all the enhanced don't spend

a cent and legitimacy i don't see them healed this in making process that raises their focus from today. so we brought post one three solution because i was i am convinced that cease would suit for all expect basins and i i think that the days there is a very important moment of cultural change. concerning zeese. aspect of this isn't 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 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. i'm only doing my easing mccarty nashik bills are over each recipient has found on this and lost new ground. we looked into the independence of this independent group and we found some s. honestly. 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 non 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 tank some brussels and poland and the u.k. . of a single of these wise men who was in favor of strict regulation another single one

of them was really independence and the effect of these eight wise men on overcoming the financial crisis was cyril the main thing that happened was that 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 a dis what we europeans had wanted. wasn't really naive to have a european dream. it is in the human nature and you have not only could you always have a bad side someone. and we need to make sure that we keep only the good and therefore you need relation. when you live in a society you have groups because otherwise people are going too fast 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 create images lation advice by creating an authority that everyone respect.

these children. they're serving a sentence just like their mothers. little ones born in prison. now must paint for the crimes committed by their parents. kill babies on our teeth.

or something evil extreme cold just a chilling threat to life or imminent death it's a cooling if you look you can see that the watering got the rights and my body feels really warm now and this is good for you. they plunge into icy water to make themselves stronger. you can't get used to the cold it but you can tolerate it and you can struggle with. people of snow and ice picks as a frost. surviving the cold is going to. choose your language. because we know in federal custody still some of the. treatments that the consensus can. choose the opinions that you think are a couple. choose the stories that impact the life choose me access to often.

more news today violence is once again flared up. and these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations are on the day . i took.

so. her. protest is towards police and football federation buildings in cairo i made on.