Despite solid public opposition to fracking across Europe, the European commission continues to allow industry stakeholders to dominate the debate and peddle untruths about its filthy technology.
The recently established advisory group for the evaluation of shale gas development is so skewed against the public interest that Friends of the Earth Europe have decided to leave it.
New research from Corporate Europe Observatory and Friends of the Earth Europe on the 'European science and technology network on unconventional hydrocarbon extraction' reveals a staggering bias towards the pro-fracking lobby.
It shows that of the non-commission members of the network 40 per cent work directly for the fracking industry and another 33 per cent have financial links to it, including academics and representatives of public institutes who have worked with the industry in producing research to support their aims.
By contrast, you can count the members representing civil society on one hand.
For years, the commission has come under fire for setting up advisory and expert groups dominated by big business interests.
From GMOs to endocrine disrupting chemicals, financial regulation to air pollution, the commission willingness to use public money to facilitate corporate domination of its own advisory systems is well documented.
But this hasn't stopped it reoffending on shale gas. Of the four chairs of the panel's working groups: one is employed by the shale gas company Cuadrilla, two represent pro-fracking governments (UK and Poland) and the fourth is an IFP (French institute of petroleum) employee who has led several research initiatives promoting the fracking industry.
The network's official mission is to gather information on shale gas in Europe and to evaluate the technologies used to extract unconventional fossil fuels.
But it has become clear that the question participants were tasked with answering was not whether we should frack, but how.
All of this, according to the commission, is part of a "fair and balanced exchange of ideas".
However, one of the chairs, Grzegorz Pieńkowski from the Polish geological institute, was more candid in a recent interview with a Polish trade magazine when he said the group would be "a step towards replacing negative or suspicious attitudes towards shale gas … with a more pragmatic and, ultimately favourable attitude."
Meanwhile, there is huge opposition to shale gas development across Europe. A 2013 Eurobarometer survey showed 74 per cent of Europeans would be concerned if a shale gas project came to their area, while just nine per cent thought unconventional fossil fuel production should be a priority.
The few countries whose governments are publicly supportive of the practice – notably Poland and the UK - still see widespread resistance to local fracking projects in their own countries.
Public confidence in the EU institutions is alarmingly low across the continent. This is not helped by the commission talking up its energy and climate policy ambition around the world while creating areas for in-house fossil fuel lobbying in Brussels.
In order to regain some of that lost legitimacy and public confidence, European policymakers must put citizens' health and the environment before the profit needs of big energy.
There's never been a better time to show commitment to genuinely fair and transparent advisory systems – especially on energy issues such as fracking.
It's time for the EU institutions to scrap the in-house industry PR apparatus, and focus on honest debate with real balance.
The report 'Carte blanche for fracking – How the European commission's new advisory group is letting the shale gas industry set the agenda' is available here:
http://corporateeurope.org/sites/default/files/attachments/carte_blanche_for_fracking_final.pdf