WATCHING THE CORPORATIONS

Global Europe: An open-door policy for big business

A new report exposes the close involvement of the European employers' federation, BusinessEurope, in drawing up the Global Europe trade strategy, launched by former Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson in late 2006. The research, conducted by Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), reveals how representatives from BusinessEurope were given privileged access in the preparations for the new strategy, with exclusive meetings with Mandelson and other top officials from Directorate-General for Trade of the European Commission.

As a result, the strategy reads like a wish list for big, export-oriented corporations, while the concerns of small and medium enterprises, unions as well as developmental and environmental NGOs have gone unheard. It focuses on many key demands of BusinessEurope, formerly known as UNICE, including a more aggressive push for bilateral trade deals to break-open new markets in the Global South and secure access to raw materials - all for the benefit of large EU-based corporations.

CEO has written to the European Commission president Manuel Barroso to urge him to "end the privileged access and big business capture of EU trade policy." The Commission, CEO argues, should use the departure of Peter Mandelson as an opportunity to "make a U-turn on EU trade policy and put the interests of people and the environment first." In the letter, CEO also challenges the close involvement of the Commission in a BusinessEurope conference on the Global Europe Strategy, which will be held on 28th October in the Commission's trade headquarters in Brussels.

Entitled "Going global: the way forward", the conference aims to evaluate the EU's Global Europe Strategy launched two years ago. The conference programme lists an unprecedented number of Commissioners and other high-ranking Eurocrats, including Barroso and Mandelson. The Seattle To Brussels Network has announced its plans to hold a "symbolic action" in protest at "this outrageous disclosure of corporate capture of EU policy-making."

The CEO report, "Global Europe: An Open Door Policy For Big Business Lobbyists At DG Trade", can be found at www.corporateeurope.org/docs/GlobalEurope-OpenDoors.pdf