Who advises the European Commission?

Publication date:

lundi, September 1, 2014

Roundtable panel discussion

Start date:

lun, 2014-09-08 18:30

Location:

Permanent Representation of Austria to the EU, 1st floor 30, Avenue de Cortenbergh, 1040 Brussels

Does big business really have privileged access to the European Commission? Why do corporate interests still dominate expert groups? What actions will the European Parliament take to better involve trade unions and civil society? Come to our event to find out!

Expert groups are often behind legislative proposals of the European Commission. These groups are frequently dominated by large companies’ interests. Trade unions and civil society organizations are underrepresented or not represented at all. The lack of transparency of the recruitment process of experts for these groups, as well as concerns about its democratic legitimacy have prompted the European Parliament to freeze the budget of these groups in 2011. Emily O'Reilly, European Ombudsman, took up this issue on her own initiative and launched a public consultation that will end on 31 August 2014.

Pascoe Sabido, from ALTER-EU Steering Committee member CEO (Corporate Europe Observatory) will participate in this panel discussion, organised by the ÖGB Europabüro (the Brussels Office of the Austrian Trade Union Federation) and AK EUROPA (the Brussels Office of the Austrian Federal Chamber of Labour).

Panellists:

Ska Keller, Member of the European Parliament, Greens

Patrick Itschert, Deputy General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation ETUC

Representative of the European Commission (tbc)

Rosita Agnew, Own-initiative inquiries coordinator, European Ombudsman

Pascoe Sabido, Corporate Europe Observatory CEO

Moderator:

Detlef Fechtner, Börsen-Zeitung

The discussion will be held in English.

Please register for the event before September 5, 2014:

Yes, I will attend the event (link is external)

No, I will not be able to attend (link is external)