Privileged access to decision-makers and corporations’ threats to leverage their structural economic power are examples of the “highly effective tools” used by big business, says ALTER-EU.
The report from the Brussels-based NGO includes eight case studies from the EU level and member states said to show where the influence of corporations has been “so extensive” that it constitutes what is called a “corporate capture.”
The cases have been investigated by NGOs and researchers around Europe and touch upon various areas of policymaking, including financial and security policy, corporation taxation and emissions regulation.
The ALTER-EU report, published on Monday, accuses the banking industry of “mostly managing to avoid stricter regulation despite causing a gigantic financial crisis with devastating economic consequences” and also takes aim at an arms industry “that has increasingly been setting the agenda and objectives of the EU’s defence programmes.”
It also cites “Volkswagen’s success in mobilising the German government to cushion any real regulatory fallout from the Dieselgate scandal” and laments “the corporate derailing of plans to tax dividends in the Netherlands at the hands of Shell and Unilever.”
Commenting on the issues raised in the report, ALTER-EU coordinator Claudio Cesarano said, “Dieselgate and the failure to regulate the financial industry after the crash have clearly shown that the influence of big business often goes beyond simple lobbying, either actively or passively aided by decision-makers.”
He added, “This is an extreme but unfortunately common threat to the public interest, social security, the environment and public health.”
Further comment came from Myriam Douo, campaigner for ALTER-EU member organisation Friends of the Earth Europe, who said, “Corporate capture is dangerous for our society. Its devastating consequences can be seen in many different policy areas.”
Douo added, “Threatening EU standards on public health and the environment through trade agreements, by allowing corporations to avoid paying fair taxes and by exposing citizens to more extreme risks from the financial sector. All of this because corporate profits have been prioritised over the public interest.”
Nina Katzemich, campaigner for ALTER-EU member organisation Lobbycontrol, said that with the European elections looming “it’s a very good time to put the fight against excessive corporate power firmly on the political agenda.”
She added, “More transparency and stricter ethics rules are important but ultimately, we need a radical change in the way policymakers at all levels interact with businesses. The needs and demands of citizens must take absolute priority.”
No one from any of the companies cited in the report was immediately available for comment on Wednesday.