31|01|2013

A majority of people across Europe are concerned about ethics and lobbying in European Union policy-making, and want better regulation of lobbyists, as well as increased transparency of the EU, according to a new opinion poll. [1] The poll conducted by TNS opinion, and completed by over 6,000 people [...]

17|01|2013

Friends of the Earth Europe, together with partners from the  Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU), has called on European Commission President Barroso to reveal all the facts about the extent of lobbying by the tobacco industry in Brussels. [...]

16|11|2012

Lobbying transparency, political ethics and the possibility for citizen participation in the European Union were the themes of a conference today organised by Friends of the Earth Europe together with organisations from five European countries. [...]

12|11|2012

The issue of transparency is again high-up on the EU agenda: following the scandal about ex-health and consumer Commissioner Dalli in the last weeks, debates on how to improve the transparency of EU institutions and regain the trust of European citizens have started again. [...]

9|10|2012

Friends of the Earth Europe has today written to the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, to express concerns about potential conflicts of interest of MEPs. The letter, sent together with Corporate Europe Observatory, LobbyControl and Spinwatch, refers to the Belgian MEP and former Prime Minister, Jean-Luc Dehaene's revision of his declaration of financial interests in which he added stock options worth more than €5.3 million in beer company AB Inbev. [...]

28|09|2012

In the year running up to 28 September 2012, members of the European public presented a total of 214 requests for documents with European institutions and bodies using the AsktheEU.org request platform. As of 23 September, almost 65% of the 214 requests made using AsktheEU.org resulted in full (37%) or partial (28%) disclosure of documents. [...]

23|07|2012

Civil society organisations are fast making their opinions known on the EU's one-year-old transparency register, calling for improvements to the information disclosed by interest groups so that citizens are able to identify who is lobbying the EU for what, and with what levels of success. [...]

19|07|2012

New ethics rules in the European Parliament are not strict enough to ensure complete transparency on MEPs' outside interests, and therefore prevent potential conflicts of interest, shows the first analysis of declarations made under the code of conduct. [...]

06|06|2012

A key European transparency law is under threat, according to environmental and transparency organisations. In a letter to the European Council, civil society warn that the current state of negotiations around the access to documents regulation could make it even more difficult for civil society to participate in EU decision making. [...]

21|05|2012

Madrid, 21 May 2012 - The threat that the right of access to information from European Union bodies will be reduced moved a step closer to reality when the 27 Member States approved a document from the Danish EU Presidency which would add broad exceptions to the existing rules. [...]

21|05|2012

Today, 21 May 2012, Access Info Europe, AITEC, Environmental Law Service, Friends of the Earth Europe, Health Action International and SpinWatch officially launched the beta version of the EU Citizens website in English. [...]

10|04|2012

Friends of the Earth Europe, as part of a coalition of civil society organisations led by Client Earth, have written an open letter to the Ministers of Justice, and the Danish Presidency, to express serious concerns about plans for changing rules on access to documents. These changes would make it more difficult for citizens, journalists and [...]

09|02|2012

Friends of the Earth Europe and Client Earth, with the support of 19 other civil society organisations including CAN Europe, Corporate Europe Observatory, ECAS, FERN, Greenpeace, Spinwatch, Statewatch and T&E;, today sent a petition to the European Parliament asking that they ensure the European Commission complies with its legal obligations to [...]