EU Watchdog Radio

In this episode, Joana and Pascoe, co-directors of Corporate Europe Observatory's new documentary "The scramble for hydrogen in South Africa" talk about the process behind the making of the film. It's a more relaxed and informal episode than usual, where you can get to know the whole truth behind the making of the film, and how you can host your very own screening!

In this episode, Isabela Franco and Lora Verheecke from Counter Balance unpack the EU’s growing push for critical raw materials and its implications for the Global South. They discuss the Global Gateway, the Critical Raw Materials Act, the use of public funds to “de-risk” private investments and the lack of meaningful participation for impacted communities and Indigenous people. A concise and critical look at how Europe’s green, digital and defence ambitions risk reinforcing extractivist and neocolonial models.

Do you know how much money Big Tech is spending on lobbying in Brussels? How has this amount been increasing? On what is the money being funnelled to and what can we do about it? Listen to our new episode of the podcast EU Watchdog Radio to find out!

In this episode, Lora Verheecke, Policy Officer at Counter Balance, interviewed Hikma Bachegour, an Assistant Professor in the Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University in Fez, Morocco. They highlighted the impacts of European hydrogen projects in Morocco and how it could affect vulnerable communities, women, and gender minorities, who are too often left out of the decision-making process.

Stay tuned to a brand new season of EU Watchdog Radio, where new hosts Isabela Franco and Lora Verheecke from Counter Balance join Marcella Via and Joana Louçã from Corporate Europe Observatory. New episodes coming soon!

Listen to the brand new podcast episode of EU Watchdog Radio, where CEO's campaigner and researcher Kenneth Haar discusses the link between the announced trade tariffs from the USA to the EU and deregulation. He presents the 5 buzzwords that you need to know in order to understand the deregulation agenda of the European Commission.

Listen to our new podcast episode, where Nina Holland talks about the intense lobby battle that the biotech industry has been waging to get its new generation of genetic modification techniques excluded from European GMO regulations.  GMO stands for genetically modified organisms. This will mean that crops or wild plants made by using this new generation of genetic modification techniques, will no longer be subject to safety checks, monitoring or consumer labelling. The underlying key word for today’s episode is deregulation, and that is a complicated word because it can sound interesting, like it can sound that it will allow people or things to, I don't know, to go about their lives more easily, not so burdened by bureaucracy. However, what deregulation here actually refers to is the scrapping of rules to protect health and the environment. It is an argument used by the industry whenever they don’t want to be supervised and their products to be, well, regulated and maybe even labelled to tell consumers how they were produced, as is the case with GMOs.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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. 

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!

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 worked hard to establish a transatlantic conservative network to roll back Sexual Reproductive Health Rights and LGBTQI+ rights.

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 Coordinator at the  Transnational Institute, or TNI, to celebrate the decision of the EU to finally leave the Energy Charter Treaty. WHO WE ARE This 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, corporate capture of decision making, corruption, fraud, human rights violations in areas like Big Tech, agro-business, biotech & chemical companies, the financial sector & public investment banks, trade, energy & climate, scientific research and much more… You can find us wherever you listen to your podcasts. Stay tuned for more independent and in-depth information that concerns every EU citizen!

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 of the work of the Fossil Free Politics coalition in this framework. You will also hear the voices of the front line. During the People’s Summit, we’ve asked our allies from Corpus Christi, Texas, and Don’t Gas Africa to send a message to the organisers of the European Gas Conference. We closed the episode sending our special message to the polluters as well.  Tune in, and enjoy the listening!  WHO WE ARE This 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, corporate capture of decision making, corruption, fraud, human rights violations in areas like Big Tech, agro-business, biotech & chemical companies, the financial sector & public investment banks, trade, energy & climate, scientific research and much more… You can find us wherever you listen to your podcasts. Stay tuned for more independent and in-depth information that concerns every EU citizen!