Via Julien Frisch’s Blog I discovered the report “Too Close for Comfort? MEPs, corporate links and potential conflict of interests” (pdf) which has just been published by Spinwatch with quite some interesting stories on:
- MEPs who accept paid work and hospitality from businesses with a vested interest in their legislative work
- MEPs with a financial interest in industries they promote
- MEPs who are in key legislative positions – for example, chairing parliamentary committees – while at the same time being involved with powerful business lobby groups.
the reasons behind the report:
The report argues that these potential conflicts of interest demand the attention of Europe’s leaders, more so than the recent scandals involving MEP’s expenses. Too Close for Comfort? profiles 12 MEPs from the UK, Germany, France, Finland and Romania. Their activities are seen as illustrative of these potential conflicts of interest but are not deemed extraordinary.
So, who is included? Here is the list of MEPs:
- Sharon Bowles: Patent lawyer pushing patents
- John Purvis: Investing in industry
- Klaus-Heiner Lehne: Another lawyer pushing patents
- Elmar Brok: MEP and media man
- Jorgo Chatzimarkakis: Network of lobbying links
- Malcolm Harbour: MEP inside the car industry
- Giles Chichester: Close to (nuclear) power
- Pervenche Beres: Opening doors to the financial industry
- Caroline Jackson: Benefiting the waste industry
- Ioan Mircea Paşcu: Consultant to US military contractors
- Eija-Riitta Korhola: Pro-nuclear and funded by nuclear
- Martin Callanan: More MEP motoring perks
You can download the report here.
Maybe also some potential contestants for the “Worst EU Lobbying Awards” … ?
