On 15 April 2014, the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU), AK EUROPA (Brussels office of the Austrian Chamber of Labour) & ÖGB Europabüro (Brussels office of the Austrian Trade Union Federation), together with a broad coalition of civil society organisations from across Europe, will launch their campaign to urge candidates for the upcoming European elections to “stand-up for citizens and democracy against the excessive lobbying influence of banks and big business”.[1] The campaign has already attracted the support of leading MEPs from across the political spectrum (names to be revealed in the launch press release), and features partners across 19 EU member states.[2]
Please look out for the official launch press release on Tuesday 15 April; you can follow the campaign on twitter (@altereu) and via the hashtag #pforp. The official website: www.politicsforpeople.eu will be live as of Monday 14 April 11am CET and will enable you to find out more about the campaign and to check out which Euro candidates have already signed.
For more information contact:
Pam Bartlett Quintanilla from Access Info Europe (Madrid), pam@access-info.org, +34 699 354 215
Pascoe Sabido, Corporate Europe Observatory (London/Brussels), pascoe@corporateeurope.org, +44 7969 665 189; +32 486 85 74 16
Notes to editors
[1] The centrepiece of the campaign is an interactive website www.politicsforpeople.eu which any EU citizen can use to directly contact their European candidates and invite them to sign the pledge. The website features case studies explaining how excessive industry lobbying impacts upon the daily lives of ordinary EU citizens, as well as information about how MEPs can stand-up to it. There will also be campaign videos and visual graphicsshowing which candidates have signed up and which are still lagging behind.
[2] Across Europe, members of the Politics for People coalition will be holding election debates, speaker tours and other activities to raise the issue of excessive big business lobbyingin the EU and to propose solutions. A full list of supporter organisations is as follows: Access Info Europe (Spain/EU); Agir pour la Paix (France); ALTER-EU (EU); Alternative Trade Mandate (France/EU); Amis de la Terre France (France); Association Internationale de Techniciens, Experts et Cherchers, AITEC (France); Association 61 (Poland); ATTAC Denmark (Denmark); ATTAC Hungary (Hungary); ATTAC Sweden (Sweden); Arbeiterkammer and ÖGB (Austria/EU); Bankwatch (EU); Campaign Against Arms Trade (UK); Center for Media, Ecology and Democracy, CMED (Czech Republic); Citizen Network Watchdog (Poland); Corporate Europe Observatory (EU); Counter Balance (EU); Denik Referendum (Czech Republic); Diritto di Sapere (Italy); EDRI (EU); European Federation of Financial Services Users (EU); Fondation Sciences Citoyennes (France); Food and Water Watch Europe (EU); Frank Bold (Czech Republic); Friends of the Earth Europe (EU); Friends of the Earth Malta (Malta); Friends of the Earth Sweden (Sweden); Gong (Croatia); Human Rights Institute (Slovakia); Institute for Public Policy (Romania); Jubilee Debt Campaign (UK); Les Ingraineurs (France); LobbyControl (Germany); Open Knowledge Foundation (UK); Openpolis (Italy); People and Planet (UK); Post Global Initiative (Global); Regards Citoyens (France); Spinwatch (UK); Stopwapenhandel (Netherlands); Sunlight Foundation (Global); Transnational Institute (Global); Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (Finland); VredesActie (Belgium); War on Want (UK); Women in Europe for a Common Future (EU); World Development Movement (UK); Young Friends of the Earth Europe (EU); Young Friends of the Earth Ireland (Ireland).
