CEO Profile picture
Mar 30 14 tweets 7 min read
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

Mar 21
⛔Toxic #Pesticides alert!⛔
+50 representants of org. signed an open letter demanding @EU_Commission that the #SUD reform is ambitious enough & contains strong legally binding use reduction targets, ensuring that farmers r supported in the transition
👀👉corporateeurope.org/sites/default/…
Other demands include:
- Not postponing the much-needed reform of #SUD
- Making sure that all EU food&feed safety standards r upheld
- @EU_Commission stands by its commitment 2 #F2F & Biodiversity Strategies,transitioning away from current model & its reliance on external inputs
What are we talking about?
Well, the #EUFarmtoFork and Biodiversity Strategies are two pillars of the #EUgreendeal hugely under attack from vested interest lobby groups, now cynically using Ukraine war as an excuse to postpone green policies.
#corporatecapture
Read 9 tweets
Mar 19
Got 5 min free this weekend?
Here are some reading suggestions:

euobserver.com/climate/154540
"With war raging, a push to roll back green farming", by @Sanchelen at @euobs
socialeurope.eu/ukraine-underl…

"Ukraine underlines urgency of EU green food goals", bu
Isabel Paliotta and @CeliaNysss at @socialeurope
editorialedomani.it/politica/europ…

"Ora è la guerra l’alibi delle lobby per sabotare il Green deal europeo"
@FrancesDiBi at @DomaniGiornale
Read 8 tweets
Jan 2
We are already feeling the impacts of the climate emergency, with record-breaking storms, floods, droughts and fires. Yet, lobbyists for #bigpolluters continue to participate in climate talks & decision-making processes.
Here's an overview of CEO's climate reports from last year:
1️⃣ The outcome of COP26 spells disaster for people and the planet, in particular for the global South. Rejected by the climate justice movement, the final text mirrors the agenda of rich developed countries and their oil and gas industries.
corporateeurope.org/en/2021/11/big…
#ClimateAction
2️⃣ At least 503 fossil fuel lobbyists, affiliated with some of the world's biggest polluting oil and gas giants, have been granted access to #COP26 , flooding the Glasgow conference with corporate influence.
corporateeurope.org/en/2021/11/hun…
Read 12 tweets
Jan 2
Climate urgency, false solutions, hydrogen, energy charter treaty... does the #ClimateCrisis interest you but you don't have time to read about it? Here's a selection of 6 episodes of our #podcast EU Watchdog Radio, dedicated to climate!
1️⃣ What happened at #COP26 ? What expectations did the #ClimateJustice movement have and what were the conclusions?

corporateeurope.org/en/2021/11/cop…
Read 7 tweets
Dec 30, 2021
☠️Did you know that toxic pesticides banned in the EU are still being produced there, and exported to other parts of the world?
Here's 6 times CEO exposed the agribusiness industry and lobbying in 2021:
1️⃣Stop the Toxic Trade: the tragic tale of toxic pesticides, international trade and EU Green Deal promises. A video featuring Bayer, BASF, Syngenta and Corteva, (un)naturally...
corporateeurope.org/en/2021/10/sto…
2️⃣Remember when internal lobby documents from Copa-Cogeca revealed a coordinated attack by industrial agri-food lobbies on the EU’s sustainable food (#Farm2Fork ) strategy?
👉corporateeurope.org/en/2021/10/lea…
Read 9 tweets
Jan 29, 2021
The contract between Astrazeneca and the European Commission is finally published - this is an important victory for MEPs and civil society that insisted on #transparency! #thread
ec.europa.eu/commission/pre…
Back in September 2020 already, we had filed a FOI request that had been denied by the European Commission. They even claimed there was no overriding public interest in the disclosure of the document!
One of the thorniest points in the conflict bw. the European Commission and #AstraZeneca over the delivery of #COVID19 #vaccines is the definition of the "best reasonable efforts" the corporation would undertake to produce and deliver them. This is how the contract defines it...
Read 6 tweets

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