Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) is a research and campaign group working to expose and challenge the privileged access and influence enjoyed by corporations and their lobby groups in EU policy making.

Legal form

Non-profit organization

Main Activities

The corporate capture of EU decision-making leads to policies that exacerbate social injustice, economic inequality, climate change and environmental destruction. From the negotiation of new free trade agreements, to false solutions to global warming, and attacks on the regulation of toxic chemicals, EU decisions and policies frequently reflect the interests of big business.

Corporate lobbies like to act in secrecy, so we expose what they do, increase public awareness, and build momentum to curb corporate influence over EU policy-making by:

• Revealing the tactics, financial firepower, privileged access and connections of corporate lobby actors – and their negative impact on public-interest policy-making
• Exposing revolving door scandals, which see (former) EU politicians joining the private sector as lobbyists – and vice versa
• Promoting lobbying transparency at the EU level and empowering citizens to partake in EU politics through petitions, public consultations, citizens’ initiatives and
• Highlighting the common dominance of corporate interests in European Commission advisory groups, which set the direction for many EU policies
• Campaigning for stricter EU lobby regulation, also with our partner the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU, a coalition of more than 200 NGOs and trade unions, in which CEO is involved in the steering committee)
• Campaigning with allied NGOs and civil society coalitions against (proposed/ draft) EU policies skewed in favour of corporate interests

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