alex 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 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. besides collecting dots and 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 biggie use some of 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 friend started arriving but. very little or no press showed up. so unfortunately our first public events was really not noticed as part of.

jumped to the most ambitious margaret ruled a key exercise the strength of the rule system of multilateral trade. and perhaps most important the establishment of a stronger broadly. for any new organization. i started to work on the financial services gats negotiations and that was really the time where i discovered this is we interesting and like we'd like to do that. we've come to the end of the most. negotiation over. the negotiators of the one hundred seventeen governments and richie vtam extraordinary success. with your approval there for my gavel the euro why rodas can

no. internal market 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 commissioner through 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 of sorts of things 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 selling 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 the 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 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 by the need to get information directly from the the banks of the company . you know 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 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 that could be thirsty for ideas from cannot 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 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 every

cio i mean it's your conference us as a 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 tall the inter 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 metres away and i have not been allowed to go out of the hotel because it was one protest 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 a shot of the service. i remember that commissioner let me ask been 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 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 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 is a commission has some relationship with the surface because it commission is willing to get some information from the services sector. 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 free and looked so lots of people from different countries different jobs different walks of life who do all interested in. how can you develop how you would write the things you do wrong and how can i build a lot 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 they are forums in which something like a debate happens inside the process but. there are national politicians here

european politicians through a 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 you really if you would be told still want to know when i would actually be on a train 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 the industry from the. simple people are 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 party or oil industry and that were working to. sold out of the. it's whether there are such

a thing as climate change and whether it's important for governments to act is to reduce c o two emissions. you can set up research institutes to provide her with. research that kind of strengthens your position. 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 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. over microsoft and the 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 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 it in decision making what is the role of a large company like monsanto or shell. you know 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. images you see good leverage surely to mccurry was able to build a new most sophisticated robot which all unfortunately doesn't give

a darn amount anything tunes mission to teach music creation why it should care about humans and. this is why you should care only. i am emission free could you take should be free transport charges free. range month three kids three stooges i free. download free broadcast quality video for your media projects and free media. dot com. 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 realize everything you thought you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture.

and. you. just. should. say. you know. one of my first testimony 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. which just kind of floored me that anyone could be so naive. more 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. 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. when i would just like to say thank your. 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 own. 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 a 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 we welcomed by mr cullison himself and one of his cabinet members. in this and mr colors had a brochure and that made us smile it was a lovely planet got to brussels which was a tongue in cheek but a very critical look at industry lobbying in the you written by eric and me in our our colleagues. when i started as a mistress and commission and i really souls that will says so weak suspicion surrounding said decision making in european union. of course i. say establish for myself a purpose do a little to reduce the suspicions. told us that he was going to launch this european transparency initiative and we immediately saw that this was sort of

become political opportunity. as an outsider to brussels business he also had a clear sense for how the ordinary citizen brussels. in the street. european commission is going to. dissolve interests represent the. decision making process have to have a transparent the commission can see that's important to know. what the interests they represent and against what financial background. say efforts to do creates a speech at the makes the speech. of course outlined main principles of transparency initiative which should be done.

without financial transparency we'll never find out who really is behind the campaign and 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 callus and certainly understand. 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 it 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 them 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 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 commissioner call us and set the stage to finally launch a lobby register a good. with little known or often or. so quite that unlockable moment today. three years ago i proposed to set up the register of lobbyists in order to enhance transparency and and legitimacy our own sam neill decision making process and that is that openness from today. so we brought boast voluntary solution because i was i am am comments that cease would suit for all expect

basins and i think that those days there is a very important moment of cultural change. concerning zeese. aspect of this season 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.

months after the financial crisis started in october two thousand and eight. appointed an 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 leszek bills are over each to separate us from now on this and last nigga. we looked into the any pennance of this independent group and we found some less honest in things. the legacy 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 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 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. . 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 was that a lot of public money was flowing to the banks. is the. ah

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 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 in the human nature and yet not only could you always have the but cite some. and we need to make sure that we keep only the good and therefore you need regulation. when you live in a society you know half truths because otherwise people are going too fast on the motorway because people have no respect to the elss because the stronger take this basis is this is human nature what we have done to go and make sure that we leave together these by creating legislation in place by creating an authority that everyone respect.

for some feeble extreme cold isn't a chilling threat to life will remain a death it's a cooling if you look you can see that the water and vibrates and my body feels really warm now this is good for you. they plunge into icy water to make themselves stronger you can't get used to the cold if you can tolerate it and you can struggle with. people of snow and ice victims of frost. surviving the cold. mornings today violence is once again flared up. these are the images. from the streets of canada. giant corporations are.

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the a. wealthy british style. markets why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mikes cars are no holds barred look at the global financial headlines in two kinds a report on r g.