EU Watchdog Radio

Last week, Brussels went reeling under another corruption scandal! This time it's Chinese big tech giant Huawei whose offices just behind the European Parliament have been raided - along with those of 15 former and current MEPs from the EPP and S&D groups. Huawei is, according to the Belgian prosecutors, being investigated for ”active corruption within the European Parliament," including "remuneration for taking political positions, excessive gifts like food and travel expenses and regular invitations to football matches ... with a view to promoting purely private commercial interests in the context of political decisions”. The research was done by Follow the Money, Le Soir and Knack and the police raided 21 addresses in Brussels, Flanders, Wallonia and in Portugal and arrested several people. But while all eyes are on Huawei and China, we at CEO want to highlight a deeper, systemic scandal that was there in Qatargate and is here now: and that is the longstanding failure of the European institutions to properly defend democracy from influence operations. There’s ongoing and systemic failures of lobby monitoring, transparency, and ethics enforcement (including regarding MEP gifts and conflicts of interest). The EU needs to consolidate and speed up implementation of the ethics body to set up common ethical standards across EU institutions.In this episode, Bram Vranken, campaigner and reseracher at CEO will discuss a report he published in January and which focuses on the standard setting process of the AI act. He uncovered that many of the world’s major tech corporations - among them Huawei - are deeply involved in creating permissive, light-weight standards that risk hollowing out the EU’s AI Act. In short, in it Bram shows that with little to no transparency, private standard-setting organisations are writing rules that have legal status in the EU. Independent experts and civil society are out-numbered, under-funded, and struggling in the face of the corporate dominance.

Transcribed - Published: 21 March 2025

The EU’s financial system operates in the shadows, with institutions like the European Investment Bank (EIB) wielding immense financial power, but who actually benefits? In the latest episode of EU Watchdog Radio, we sit down with Yanis Varoufakis - former Greek Finance Minister, Member of the Greek Parliament, and relentless critic of financial elites - to dissect the EU’s economic machinery.From the European Investment Bank’s role in fueling corporate capture to the EU’s relentless push for competitiveness at the expense of social and environmental justice, we dig into the flaws of a system designed to benefit the few. In an exchange with Alexandra Gerasimcikova, Varoufakis unpacks the implications of Europe’s lack of political will to mobilise large scale public funds to build a green economy, prospects for Europe to compete with global actors in the field of artificial intelligence, the dangers of Europe’s growing military spending, and what bold changes are needed to shift power back to the people.Tune in for an unfiltered conversation that exposes the reality behind EU finance.

Transcribed - Published: 4 March 2025

What does a lipstick, a non-stick frying pan and Scotchgard have in common? They all contain PFAS, a.k.a., forever chemicals! In this episode, Vicky Cann, campaigner and researcher at CEO, explains how her huge report "Chemical reaction - Inside the corporate fight against the EU’s PFAS restriction" came to be and what were the most shocking results she unveiled. It can be read here 👉 https://corporateeurope.org/en/chemical-reaction #banpfas #toxicfreeeurope #foreverlobbying project

Transcribed - Published: 16 January 2025

In this last episode of EU watchdog radio of 2024 we dive into the topic of the global power of the Big Meat lobby and how two dozen ultra rich companies dominate the political and policy agenda including at the FAO. We talk to professor Paul Behrens, climate expert at Oxford university and Caitlin Smith, senior campaigner at Changing Markets Foundation, about the report The new merchants of doubt. And don’t worry, we do not want to turn you into a vegan or vegetarian (would be healthy for you); but the bottom line is: we should eat way less meat in the rich parts of the world and give a little ecological space to the world’s poorer regions.

Transcribed - Published: 31 December 2024

On Monday 28 October, South Africa submitted a detailed memorial against Israel to the International Court of Justice, seeking to establish that Israel's military actions in Gaza amount to genoc1de.  Unsurprisingly, it was South Africa, a country from the Global South with a past marked by colonisation and brutal apartheid, that stood up against Israel. South Africa was supported by countries such as Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia, Namibia, the Maldives, Malaysia... but what about the EU? In this episode speak about the EU’s complicity in the genoc1de in Gaza and the role of the arms industry.

Transcribed - Published: 19 November 2024

After pressuring Azerbaijan to up gas production for export, the EU is using COP29 to greenwash the fossil fuel and its own climate image. In this episode we talk to Pascoe Sabido, campaigner and researcher at CEO, about his analyse the EU's hypocrisy as its climate goals and upholding human rights are overtaken by energy security demands and greenwashing.

Transcribed - Published: 14 November 2024

With the launch of the so-called “Investment Commission,” a worrisome agenda takes shape: prioritising supply chains and deregulation while neglecting vital public investment. In an era of renewed austerity, private profit reigns supreme, overshadowing the funds needed for a just transformation and climate goals. Chiara Casati and Frank Vanaerschot dig into the Draghi report, EIB updates, and Commission hearings. Brace yourselves for a “Commission for Investors.”

Transcribed - Published: 23 October 2024

Double deregulation, competitiveness checks, rule of law or the omnibus law, it can all sound like technocratic gibberish, but they are all pieces of the downward spiral in social standards that are in immediate risk. But this social dumping is not the only challenge ahead, the same applies to environmental protection. This episode takes us beyond these unpronounceable words to discuss what is really at stake and what civil society should do about it. Welcome to a brand new episode of EU Watchdog Radio, where Joana Louçã talks to Kenneth Haar and Olivier Hoedeman about what we already know of the plans the European Commission has for the coming five years.

Transcribed - Published: 7 October 2024

As it prepares to usher in a new era of austerity, the EU is rife with declarations of increased militarisation, coupled with measures to significantly increase European arms spending and strengthen the Union's military capabilities. In this episode, Laëtitia Sédou of ENAAT looks at the impact of skyrocketing military spending, the powerful influence of arms industry lobbying and the worrying diversion of funds at the expense of tackling the climate crisis and supporting social programmes. 

Transcribed - Published: 27 June 2024

Hi, and welcome to the new season of EU Watchdog Radio, a podcast by Counter Balance and Corporate Europe Observatory. We changed the podcast a bit! Stay tuned for the second season of EU Watchdog Radio!

Transcribed - Published: 11 June 2024

During the current and almost over EU legislature, the rise of far-right forces has come hand in hand with the stigmatisation, harassment, and violence against women and LGBTQI+ people.In this episode, Corporate Europe Observatory researcher and campaigner Kenneth Haar unveils the link between ultraconservative US foundations and right-wing forces across Europe. In the crosshairs outstands the Alliance Defending Freedom - a Christian right-wing organisation that, during the years, has wo...

Transcribed - Published: 7 June 2024

In a milestone win for civil society, the EU will withdraw from the climate-wrecking Energy Charter Treaty (or ECT). The ECT was designed in the 1990s to favour industry’s interests, and was a powerful weapon to obstruct the kind of phaseout of fossil fuels needed to avoid catastrophic climate change. It should never have existed in the first place.In this episode of EU Watchdog Radio, Joana Louçã talks to Pia Eberhardt, former campaigner and researcher at CEO, and Lucía Bárcena, Project Coor...

Transcribed - Published: 24 April 2024

For the first time in seventeen years, the European Gas Conference was cancelled—or, at least, postponed. However, this did not stop CEO from travelling all the way to Vienna to meet with climate activists and campaigners at the People’s Summit, the counter-summit of the Gas Conference.This episode was recorded live in the capital city of Austria. Marcella Via spoke with CEO’s researchers and campaigners Pascoe Sabido and Belén Balayá about their views on the People’s Summit and the relevance...

Transcribed - Published: 16 April 2024

Amazon is a frequent visitor to the EU Parliament. In January alone, it had nine meetings with MEPs. But when it refused to appear before the Employment Committee on a hearing on crucial issues concerning working conditions within its warehouses, it made MEPs from all party groups extremelly angry, and rightly so. On 5 February, MEPs on the European Parliament’s Employment Committee sent an official letter to Roberta Metsola, the European Parliament President, urging the withdrawal of lo...

Transcribed - Published: 13 February 2024

Another year, another COP. As the UN climate talks concluded in Dubai, for the first time ever a “transition away from fossil fuels” has been mentioned in the final text, but calling for a win would be a clear overstatement. The text has the oily fingerprints of the fossil fuel lobby all over it. The reality is COP28 is more likely to facilitate a fossil fuel frenzy by cementing false solutions in the text: exactly what the army of lobbyists ordered.Listen to our new podcast episode of EU Wat...

Transcribed - Published: 26 December 2023

It's one year since the Qatargate corruption scandal exploded across the EU institutions and a good time to review if and how things have changed in the Brussels Bubble. In this episode, Joana Louçã talks to Corporate Europe Observatory's researchers Olivier Hoedeman and Vicky Cann.WHO WE AREThis podcast is produced by CEO and Counter Balance. Both NGOs raise awareness on the importance of good governance in the EU by researching issues like lobbying of large and powerful industries, corporat...

Transcribed - Published: 9 December 2023

As the European Commission’s current mandate draws to a close, some Commissioner’s are contemplating their next moves. One such politician is current Vice President Margrethe Vestager, who is campaigning to become the next president of the European Investment Bank (EIB). She is one of five potential candidates who will take over from current EIB president Werner Hoyer at the end of this year, with the successor to be chosen in the coming months.The EIB is the largest multilateral development ...

Transcribed - Published: 24 September 2023

In this new episode of EU Watchdog Radio Hans van Scharen talks to UN rapporteur on the right to Food Michael Fakhri and Political scientist Yiorgos Vassalos. They discuss rising food prices and hunger, the link with financial markets and the lack of political will to curb the influence of financial speculation with food commodities, which contribute to excessive food prices and thus hunger. This podcast is a follow-up of episode 43 in which Fakhri explained how hunger is not an i...

Transcribed - Published: 26 July 2023

In this new episode of the podcast EU Watchdog Radio, Joana Louçã talks to economist and trade unionist Frank Ey, and to Olivier Hoedeman and Moritz Neujeffski, co-authors of CEO's latest report: 30 Years of EU Single Market: Time to remove the obstacles to social-ecological transformation.This year marks the 30th anniversary of the creation of EU's Single Market, and to mark it, we have just launched a new report (and a board game!) showing how corporate interests have used Single Market rul...

Transcribed - Published: 22 June 2023

This is the 43d episode of EU Watchdog Radio where we talk all things food security, food systems and the (often political) violence that is omni-present around the world when it comes to one of our basic needs: food. It ‘s an important year for the global food security debate and the current heated EU political debate on this topic is not looking very promising. The biggest political family EPP declared officially that they want to end all greening policies for agriculture and basically all ...

Transcribed - Published: 5 June 2023

Corporate Europe Observatory's researcher Kat Ainger, Olivier Hoedeman and Hans van Scharen talk about the corruption scandal and its’ consequences.This is the 42nd episode of EU Watchdog Radio where we talk all things Qatargate. What the EPP is plotting against civil society, what the problems are with the current EU transparency register and what better examples are used in other countries. CEO has for almost a decade now been looking into human rights abusers hiring consultants and repress...

Transcribed - Published: 17 February 2023

In our brand new episode of EU Watchdog Radio, we talk to MEP Paul Tang and to CEO’s Bram Vranken about the new website LobbyLeaks.eu.Welcome to the 41st episode of EU Watchdog Radio where we talk with Dutch MEP Paul Tang and to CEO’s Big Tech researcher Bram Vranken on the website LobbyLeaks.eu.LobbyLeaks.eu has just been launched by CEO and Lobby Control, with the support of several cross-party MEPs and it is a new hotline for anonymous tip-offs about lobbying, specifically focused on issue...

Transcribed - Published: 3 February 2023

The EU Global Gateway has been pitched as the EU’s response to the economic, climate and energy crises engulfing the planet. Yet over a year after the European Commission launched the Gateway, it is still shrouded in secrecy. It is unclear if any new money is actually being made available for international development through the Gateway, or whether the strategy is mainly a PR exercise. Worse still, the Gateway may serve as an excuse to transfer development resources over to the private secto...

Transcribed - Published: 21 November 2022

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Transcribed - Published: 11 November 2022

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Transcribed - Published: 6 November 2022

podcast 37 on Launch of Lobbyfacts with Lucy and Vicky Cann

Transcribed - Published: 30 September 2022

Welcome to a new summer episode of EU Watchdog Radio. In this episode we will very exceptionally…talk about ourselves, about CEO as a lobby watchdog and dive into how it all started 25 years ago.This year CEO celebrates it’s 25th anniversary albeit in a rather modest way, since at the start of this year the pandemic was still raging, and soon after a war started on the European continent with a subsequent energy- and food crisis. Not exactly a very festive momentum.But while discussing the hi...

Transcribed - Published: 25 July 2022

In this episode of EU Watchdog Radio, we talk with Olivier Hoedeman, campaigner and researcher at CEO, and Bruno Maia, a doctor and activist.We discuss with Olivier how the EU approached the negotiations with the pharmaceutical companies, what we can get from the documents CEO requested access to, and what was the TRIPS waiver agreed with the World Trade Organisation.Bruno, on the other hand, addressed some of the concepts around vaccines. What are patents and do all vaccines have them? Are t...

Transcribed - Published: 30 June 2022

In the latest episode of EU Watchdog Radio, we discuss how EU public finance institutions like the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) should approach the rebuilding of Ukraine after the war comes to an end.Russia’s hostile invasion of Ukraine sent shockwaves across Europe and beyond. The war has forced over 6.8 million people to flee the country, with millions more internally displaced.The damage done to Ukraine’s infrastructure has been colossal. Speaking at the World Ec...

Transcribed - Published: 31 May 2022

In this new episode of EU Watchdog Radio we discuss some fascinating historical events that helps to understand why the European Union is functions the way it does, and why we have not made enough progress to tackle climate change, despite al the scientific knowledge we have accumulated since at least 1972. This episode is published on the 9th of May for a reason: this is Europe Day and thus we publish the first of several episodes to celebrate the 25th anniversary of CEO. As the Europe...

Transcribed - Published: 9 May 2022

In this episode of EU Watchdog Radio, we talk about the EU’s dependency on gas, what energy poverty is and in what way it is linked to the Ukraine war. We also discuss the energy alternatives the EU is considering, and what really needs to happen.Europe is facing a crisis of the cost of living and the invasion of Ukraine has exposed its dependency on Russian oil and gas. As the EU continues to import them, it is directly funding Putin’s war. According to Beyond Coal, in March alon...

Transcribed - Published: 13 April 2022

In the latest episode of EU Watchdog Radio, we discuss the linkages between the Ukraine war , the food crisis and subsequent ‘the policy fall-out’. Agrobusiness lobbies and their political allies abuse the crisis to derail and delay the EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy.A toxic lobby amplified by conservative politicians was very quick to start, calling for increased food production due to the Ukraine war. And thus they called for the need of more fertilisers and pesticides as they wrongfully ...

Transcribed - Published: 28 March 2022

In the latest episode of EU Watchdog Radio, we discuss the European Guarantee Fund (EGF), a secretive €25 billion fund created by the European Investment Bank (EIB), ostensibly to help European businesses in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.The fund aims to use the €25 billion invested by the EIB to inject €200 billion into the European economy. Yet while this may sound good in principle, systemic problems abound with the EGF.Firstly, the EGF itself is so mired in secrecy that it is di...

Transcribed - Published: 1 March 2022

In this new episode of EU Watchdog Radio we discuss France, French politics, the role that French President Emmanuel Macron wants to play in the EU and what vision he has for the future of Europe. Disclaimer: the French Presidency of the EU Council which started on 1 January promises a very corporate-driven future of Europe! An EU Presidency prepared in close collaboration with the French corporate sector which is setting a policy agenda that strongly reflects business demands. That was ...

Transcribed - Published: 21 January 2022

In this new episode we’ll talk to two experts - Dimitri Eynikel, an expert of Doctors without Borders and CEO-researcher Olivier Hoedeman- on how the EU is dealing with the new phase of the pandemic, with a special focus on the still unresolved unequal access of large parts of the world to Covid-19 vaccines, new medicines and therapeutics. Experts have long warned that if the global population does not have access to vaccines, new variants of the virus will emerge and hit us back....

Transcribed - Published: 6 December 2021

In this new episode of EU Watchdog Radio we take the temperature of the international Climate conference COP26, that started this week in Glasgow. Activist Greta Thunberg is right by saying and sometime shouting the word ‘Greenwashing’ all over Glasgow. While COP26 in Glasgow was branded by the UK government as the COP where the world should take historic decisions, it seems the UK government has been putting up a gigantic greenwashing PR -show. Government and climate policy by announce...

Transcribed - Published: 5 November 2021

In this new episode of EU Watchdog Radio, we take a closer look at the European Green Deal (EGD) and in particular how it is being financed. Counter Balance released their latest report on October 20, 2021. In “The European Green Deal: Reclaiming Public Investments for a real Socio-ecological Transformation” Counter Balance shows that the financial basis of the EGD is undersized and wobbly at best.In this episode we talk to Xavier Sol, Director of Counter Balance about the main findings of th...

Transcribed - Published: 22 October 2021

In this new episode of EU Watchdog Radio we dive into the question on how the European governments are actually spending the billion and billions of EU recovery funds. We focus specifically on France, which is taking over the EU presidency as of 2022 (Under the influence | Corporate Europe Observatory) .The climate movements are preparing for the important climate summit which will take place in Glasgow, early November. All kinds of experts, like the scientists of the IPCC told us that we hav...

Transcribed - Published: 15 October 2021

In this new episode of EU Watchdog Radio, we start with a Bang. This podcast deals with the question how the big digital corporations and platforms like Facebook, Google, Amazon and others try to influence European policy making to keep their business models intact.New research by CEO and the colleagues from the German association LobbyControl, shows the incredible lobby firepower of Big Tech. The new study ‘The Lobby network, Big Tech’s web of influence in the EU’ provides a unique and...

Transcribed - Published: 6 September 2021

In the second part of this episode we first talk with Dimitri Eynikel, expert of Doctors without Borders who explains why the proposals of the EU to counter or derail the proposal of South-Africa and India, are rather meaningless. Dimitri explains why the proposals of the EU to boost global production and access to vaccines and therapeutics will simply not work and might even take us backwards. And why in times of a pandemic this attitude of the European Union is “quite shameful”....

Transcribed - Published: 18 July 2021

In this special summer episode we’ll bring you the true story on how the European Union has been dealing with the covid-19 pandemic so far and why the EU seems to have a deep love affair with Big Pharma. In two parts of this podcast several experts will explain that the European Commission – the executive branch of the EU - not only has a very eurocentric way of dealing with the pandemic, but also persists in complete secrecy on how it negotiates with powerful pharmaceutical companies.&n...

Transcribed - Published: 18 July 2021

In this new episode of this podcast we put spotlights on the European Union as an economical superpower and how the EU regulates - or not - corporate power. The European way of doing (geo)politics is often described as ‘soft power’. But the impact of European businesses in other parts of the world – as well as in the EU itself - is often not so soft; As corporate behaviour often leads to human rights violations and destruction of ecosystems. So how is the EU dealing with issues like envi...

Transcribed - Published: 29 June 2021

In this new episode of EU Watchdog Radio we dive into the issue of plains, trains, cars and bicycles aka transport and why this is such a powerful issue in the context of climate change and healthy societies.Since the lockdown many plains stayed on the ground, which from a climate perspective is a good thing. The pandemic learned us that we need to change certain ways in which we live, travel and consume. While even governments and policymakers acknowledged this need, they pay out billi...

Transcribed - Published: 30 April 2021

In this new episode of EU Watchdog Radio we dive into the covert lobby tactics used by the biotechnology industry to get a new generation of GMO’s to be used in agriculture, deregulated in the EU. Why are agrochemical companies like Bayer and Corteva so against having European safety rules? And why is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation financing this lobby-campaign? A few decades ago some agrochemical companies started selling patented seeds created with genetic modification, f...

Transcribed - Published: 2 April 2021

This new episode of EU Watchdog Radio is dedicated to the Global Climate strike on Friday the 19th of March; Two experts talk about how the current proposed climate policies are too much oriented towards market based solutions and influenced by the same industry that created climate change: the fossil fuel companies.In the year 2021, we have started the last decade we have to take urgent climate action. The scientists of the IPCC told us we have ten years to curb greenhouse gas em...

Transcribed - Published: 18 March 2021

In this new episode of EU Watchdog Radio we dive into one of the biggest examples of ‘cognitive dissonance’ in recent history. Every (European) policymaker knows by now that fossil fuels should stay in the ground, but yet they keep defending the EU’s membership of a treaty that defends fossil fuel investments: the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT).We’ll be talking with Pia Eberhardt , campaigner and expert on international trade from CEO, who explains the ins and outs of this strange creature and w...

Transcribed - Published: 1 March 2021

In this new episode we dive into the incredible story on how Fortress Europe is being constructed by a European agency called the ‘European Border and Coast Guard Agency’ AKA Frontex, almost in the dark and without any democratic oversight. With billions of EU taxpayer’s money and the help of dozens of lobbyists from defense, arms and surveillance technology industries, Frontex is creating a world that George Orwell would have found inspiring when writing his book ‘1984’.In the first weekend ...

Transcribed - Published: 12 February 2021

Pandemic, austerity, privatisation and the urgency of an honest debate on health care policy.In this first new episode of 2021, we dive into the topic that is unfortunately still on everyone's mind each and every day: the raging pandemic. Our main focus is why were /are health care systems in many countries under such pressure when dealing with Covid-19? From hospitals to care homes, the outsourcing and privatisation of healthcare , in combination with various EU austerity policies, hav...

Transcribed - Published: 5 February 2021

Listen to CEO-researcher Belen Balanya who published a report on the 'Hydrogen Hype' and why this trojan horse of the gas industry is not a climate solution, making the EU Green Deal a grey deal.

Transcribed - Published: 18 December 2020

‘Black rocking the European Green Deal’ is the title of this fourteenth episode, in which CEO researcher Kenneth Haar and Jana Leutner researcher at Change Finance, discuss the Blackrock scandal. Together they published a report called “The BlackRock Model”, in which they uncover the scale of the blunder of the European Commission by granting a contract to BlackRock to give advice on ‘sustainable finance’. On the 25th of November it became crystal clear that the EuropeanCommission ignor...

Transcribed - Published: 27 November 2020