From Huaweigate to the AI Act: how to bake bias in
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.
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25:59
EIB in focus: Rethinking Europe's financial future with Yanis Varoufakis
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.
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33:42
The corporate fight against PFAS restriction
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
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30:20
Meet the Big Meat Lobby
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.
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37:01
Inaction kills - The EU, Gaza, and the arms industry
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.
EU Watchdog Radio is a podcast launched by two Brussels NGO's: Counter Balance and Corporate Europe Observatory. In each episode, we dive deeper into topics that relate to our activities in Brussels. Whether it be steps to increase transparency of lobbies in the EU or how to tackle public investment in a way that works for everyone. We explore it all, right here at EU Watchdog Radio!
South Africa