In Brussels, the political heart of the European Union, extreme corporate influence often distorts the political process, either blocking progress where it is sorely needed or leading to policies t
Public health and transparency campaigners have sent a joint letter to the European Commission challenging the European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) decision to allow its former Executive Director, Thomas Lönngren, to take up an advisory role within the private pharmaceutical sector just weeks after leaving his position with the regulatory agency.
Six years after the launch of the European Transparency Initiative, there’s still a long way to go to reach the goal of transparency around the role of lobbying in EU decision-making.
In November, the College of Commissioners quietly adopted the long-awaited revision of the ‘Horizontal Rules on Expert Groups’. The new rules do not include any safeguards against corporate capture of expert groups, whereas more than 100 of the existing groups are dominated by big business. They also limit the scope for transparency.
