You may have heard about the Commission's EU Industry day which is being held on Tuesday 28 February in the Charlemagne building: http://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/newsroom/cf/itemdetail.cfm?item_id=9063 It is organised by DG Grow and will feature Commissioners Juncker, Moedas, Bieńkowska, Katainen and maybe more. Corporate interests with speaking slots include BusinessEurope, European Roundtable of Industrialists and Orgalime and many, many others.
The Commission says it "fully supports its industry and makes a strong contribution to jobs and growth in Europe. We have acted by establishing industrial competitiveness into all our major policy initiatives ... we are organising European Industry Day to take stock of existing actions and stimulate debate on a joint vision for the long-term future of European industry."
The Commisison is trumpeting that this as the first EU Industry Day, but we at ALTER-EU think that every day is industry day at the Juncker Commission! Dieselgate, CETA, TTIP, so-called Better Regulation, the debacle over glyphosate, and many other examples, all show that the relations between big business and EU politicians can be far too cosy.
On Tues 28 Feb, we'd like to use the #EUIndustryDay hashtag to remind all those attending this event how far the Commission goes in accommodating the wishes of big business, and how industry too often gets away with bending the rules. During the day itself (28 Feb) we will be tweeting using the official #EUIndustryDay hashtag and we hope you will join us. Nearer the time we can supply some suggested tweets to get the ball rolling, but we hope that you will also promote your own, based on your research, analysis and campaigns. Do also share your ideas or proposals with us. Please get in touch with me at vicky@corporateeurope.org or ask your social media team to, if you are interested to participate in this informal online action. If there is the appetite, we could arrange a conference call to coordinate further.
Also, between 8-9am on Tues 28 Feb, outside the event itself, ALTER-EU will be making its presence felt! Again, we will send more information around about this soon, or you can get in touch with Myriam at myriam.douo@foeeurope.org