Most lobby firms won't touch the #Kremlin w/ a bargepole NOW, but for decades the EU's weak rules have allowed #Putin 's hired 🔫s to #lobby in Brussels with 0 ethical concerns and near-0 reporting requirements. Here's a 🧵👇

Follow us on instagram for+: instagram.com/corporateeurop… Ironic table about the EU Transparency Register Dodgy Dictat
2/14
In 2006 sister @Omnicom PR firms GPlus (🇪🇺) & @KetchumPR (🇺🇸) won a multimillion 💰💰 contract to rep for the #Kremlin (& @GazpromEN in 2007)

Ketchum helped #Putin get named Time's Person of the Year & placed an eyebrow raising op-ed by him on Syria in the @nytimes . Vadimir Putin in the cover of Time Magazine, as the person o
3/14
GPlus worked to connect Russia and Gazprom to top EU officials and media;with subcontracts for PR firms Dimap (Berlin), Reti (Rome), & Portland (London)

(NB in 2020 GPlus merged with Portland Communications)

👉corporateeurope.org/en/pressreleas…
#undertheinfluence
#lobbytransparency
4/14
When Russia invaded Crimea in 2014,GPlus circulated Putin's letter to EU media & govts threatening to cut off 🇷🇺 gas supplies

Despite ensuing EU sanctions GPlus continued to represent both Russia and Gazprom, who were among their biggest clients

👉corporateeurope.org/sites/default/…
5/14
🤔GPlus Brussels' role included press briefings, drafting policy documents; and according to a long-deleted Russian interview “Providing objective information to European Commission officials" and giving the Kremlin "an opportunity to tell its story" in the West
📰 in 🇷🇺👉🇬🇧 Interview in RussianTranslation: "In January 2009 during the gas transit cr
6/14
In 2020 GPlus merged with Portland Communication which no longer indicates Kremlin or Gazprom are clients. There are plenty of other firms that took Russian money but this isn't really about any one case...(continues)
7/14
(cont)... it's about why repressive regimes & autocratic govts can pay European lobby consultancies and lawyers to whitewash their images, fight sanctions, smear opponents, hide abuses & lobby for investment, trade & political support with the EU institutions with impunity.
8/14
👉It is imperative that in the rush to move away from Russian fossil fuels and other corporate interests, we do not simply replace them with dirty energy and lobbying from other repressive regimes such as Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan.
9/14
Lobby consultancies repping govts now have to declare these clients. But there's v little detail required, almost no enforcement, & govt clients don’t need to register themselves.

❓So is the near zero declaration of repressive regime clients a true picture or obfuscation?
10/14
And what about lawyers advocating for sanctioned clients? Historically law firms have been very slow in joining the register and declaring their lobby clients on legal confidentiality grounds.
11/14
The godfather of PR, Ivy Lee, worked to rep for Nazi Germany in DC in the 1930s, leading to an outcry & mandatory US register for lobbyists representing foreign govts.

👉That's why Paul Manafort was JAILED for not reporting his lobbying for Putin-ally Yanukovych. Paul Manafort - Caricature Source: Wikimedia Commons
12/14
In contrast, though Manafort had used the Brussels-based European Centre for a Modern Ukraine as his multimillion $ lobbying outfit for the Kremlin's Ukrainian allies (as CEO reported in 2015), he faced 0 consequences in the EU due to a flawed voluntary register. "Prime Policy Group, the public affairs brunch of Burso"It was a "political love connection" as &quo
13/14
👉If autocratic govts need diplomacy, they have… diplomats for that.
❌They have no 'right' to PR or EU lobby representation.
It shouldn't take horror in the news to make that obvious.
✊We need better lobby rules across the board. Quote: "But as Andrew Stroehlein from Human Rights Watc
👉Conclusion: the EU now needs to ban lobby access to its politicians and officials for:
❌ Reps for repressive governments (excluding diplomatic contacts)
❌Companies, subsidiaries, & other organisations closely associated with repressive governments.

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More from @corporateeurope

Jul 15
🚨This week, MEPs vote on von der Leyen's 2nd term as 🇪🇺 Commission President. What does she stand for?

5 years ago, she praised climate activists & promised a Green Deal.

Now, she's embracing corporate lobbyists & deregulation.

🧵👇 cartoon showing Ursula von der leyen in 2019 with the words: how it started. Von der Leyen is giving a speech to young climate and environmental just activists saying "I have been inspired by the passion, conviction and energy of those millions of young people who have made their voices heard in our streets and dfound their way to our hearts". The second half of the cartoon says: How it's going. It shows von der Leyen giving a speech to businessmen holding bags of money in a very polluted environment and saying: "I have been impressed by the passion of dozens of corporate exe...
⚠️Despite warm words, VDL's term #1 saw unprecedented support for #hydrogen, a #FalseSolution to the #ClimateCrisis promoted by the #FossilFuel industry.

Also, an energy advisory group formed post-🇺🇦 invasion with fossil fuel giants!

🔗 corporateeurope.org/en/2022/11/how…
A cartoon by @cartoonralph titled: "Adventures in green regulation with Carrot & Stick". There is a carrot saying: "The Commission just fired Stick".
It's been shocking to see how von der Leyen & right-wing allies have responded to corporate lobby agenda by ditching promised & much needed new rules on:

❗️#FarmtoFork
❗️#REACHrevision
❗️#ExportBan

corporateeurope.org/en/2023/11/sab…
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Read 6 tweets
Nov 17, 2023
🚨NEW

The AI Act is at risk of being derailed by a last-minute Big Tech lobbying offensive, our research shows.

✋Fundamental rights are at risk of being sacrificed for the sake of corporate profits.

Read the publication here 👉 corporateeurope.org/en/2023/11/byt…
“By by byte: How Big Tech undermined the AI Act” cover page
Big Tech enjoys privileged access to the EU institutions lobbying the AI Act.

❌86 percent of meetings of @EU_Commission high-level officials were with industry
❌66 percent of MEP meetings were with corporate interests

#PrivilegedAccess
Infographic showing that 86 percent of EU Commission meetings in 2023 were with industry
Infographic showing that 66 percent of MEP meetings in 2023 were with industry
💵 Microsoft and Google have used their huge lobbying power to push for foundation models such as ChatGPT to be unregulated.

🤝In May Google’s CEO even managed to have meetings with three Commissioners in just one day.

👉 corporateeurope.org/en/2023/11/byt…

Infographic showing the extensive resources Microsoft has to lobby the AI Act including regular meetings with policy-makers and a high lobbying budget of at least 5 million euro.
Infographic showing the extensive resources Google has to lobby the AI Act including regular meetings with policy-makers and a high lobbying budget of at least 5,5 million euro.
Read 7 tweets
Oct 11, 2023
We’re very happy to have had the possibility of hearing Dr. Michael Antoniou, Reader in Molecular Genetics at @KingsCollegeLon about new GMOs and issue related to the push for deregulation in the EU and elsewhere 🧵1
What are some of the unintended effects for health and environment from new GMOs? 🧵2
What are the industry and researcher that lobby for deregulation telling to decision-makers: ignore the unintended effects of gene editing 🧵3
Read 5 tweets
Sep 22, 2023
1/7

As #PFAS consultation ends on Monday, check out our research on the industry, its lobby allies & strategies to weaken EU’s proposed restriction on #ForeverChemicals

Time to #BanPFAS to stop environmental pollution & the growing human health costs.

corporateeurope.org/en/pfas-are-fo…
Image
2/7

#PFAS are everywhere and burden of dealing with human health & environmental consequences are to be counted in billions at EU level.

Globally it could be trillions.

125 NGOs demand to #BanPFAS in consumer products by 2025 & a complete ban by 2030.

corporateeurope.org/en/pfas-are-fo…
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3/7

EU is currently consulting on a proposed ban on #PFAS, with a phase out planned over 12 years, but it looks as if industry has been dominating the consultation, with far more submissions than anyone else.

echa.europa.eu/restrictions-u…
Read 7 tweets
Sep 13, 2023
Today, the President of the Commission von der Leyen did her annual State of the Union speech. Well written, but between the lines you hear a Europe with big business at the steering wheel along with conservative politicians.

Our 9 worst moments from #SOTEU 2023 below. Image
1⃣ “We shifted the climate agenda to being an economic one”

Yes, on so many occasions, the business agenda of growth and competitiveness has undermined the fight against climate change. Image
2⃣ “….we will hold clean transition dialogues with industry.”

In recent years, the problem was not the lack of dialogue with industry, but the negative impact of corporate lobbying on climate policies.
Read 10 tweets
Mar 23, 2023
🚨 Read our new report on #hydrogen 🚨

🔴 It shows how it is being used as a Trojan horse to prolong the use of #FossilFuels

✊The EU must scrap its unrealistic H2 targets and increase investment in energy efficiency and just renewables


👉 Here: corporateeurope.org/en/GermanysGre… Report cover, map of Africa and an air balloon sayin Hydroge
🚨Behind the hype, this hydrogen push will actually lead to higher CO2 emissions

⛔It’s not because you put the word green in front of #Hydrogen that it becomes climate friendly


👉 Read all about it here: corporateeurope.org/en/GermanysGre… The hydrogen supply chain from production to transport to po
We found that:

❌100+ German businesses are key players for #GreenHydrogen and many of them have ties to the fossil fuel industry, jumping on the hydrogen bandwagon to lock in harmful infrastructure & production models.

👉 Here: corporateeurope.org/en/GermanysGre…

#fossilfreepolitics Photo of gas transport pipes, in a black and white ohoto, on
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