Action Briefing Dec 2004 - Jan 2005
	The Newsletter of Birmingham Friends of the Earth

Mandy Pandy: Will Big Business be pulling Mandelson's strings in Europe?

While Peter Mandelson addressed the Confederation of British Industry conference at Birmingham's ICC on Monday 8th November, outside the venue a sinister papier-mache likeness of the twice-disgraced former Labour Minister danced to the tune of big business.

Friends of the Earth and the World Development Movement are demanding a rethink of the appointment of Peter Mandelson to the post of Trade Commissioner. Is Mr. Mandelson is really the right person to lead a radical rethink of EU trade policy away from the demands of big business and end the privileged access given to corporate lobby groups by the European Commission?

Peter Mandelson has an intimate relationship with the business community. The fact that he is addressing the CBI conference before he has even been formally appointed illustrates the closeness of this relationship. As European Trade Commissioner, he will play a crucial role in international trade negotiations. It is essential that his role is not tainted by connections with big business, and that the whole process of trade negotiation at the European and international level is made more transparent and accountable.

Radical
Environment and development groups have called for a radical overhaul of Europe’s trade policy to give more protection to people and the environment. They warn that Mandelson’s commitment to the agenda set by his predecessor, Pascal Lamy, would perpetuate the status quo where needs of people and the environment come second to furthering business interests.

Mandelson is expected to be accompanied in his move to Brussels by his long-time ally and Downing Street advisor on Europe, Roger Liddle. Liddle was at the centre of the 1998 cash for access sleaze scandal along with Mandelson aid Derek Draper. There are also concerns that Liddle has links to pro-GM lobby groups. GM is a hot issue within the EU Commission: the US has taken the EU to the World Trade Organsiation over the latter's cautionary approach to GM food (see www.gmwatch.org and www.bite-back.org.uk).

Following Mr. Mandelson’s questioning by the European Parliament, Green MEPs demanded a commitment from the Commissioner-designate to tackle the secret culture of corporate trade lobbying and introduce a system of transparent registers.

Opposed
One group of MEPs has already opposed Mandelson’s appointment. In a letter to the President of the European Parliament of 4th October, the European United Left Group said, "he [Mandelson] has not shown a single imaginative idea on how to begin to realize this change of orientation of the trade negotiations to reduce the gap between developing and industrialized countries, and the gap between rich and poor within the countries themselves . . . There was no hint of a proposal for fairer trade, nor any proposal for change of the international system that might lead to a better consideration of social and environmental concerns."

In November, fifty civil society organisations from across Europe wrote to EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, demanding action to control excessive influence of corporate lobby groups over EU policy-making and calling on him to make a clean break with the undemocratic practices developed by his predecessors.

For more information visit www.corporateeurope.org.

From a Friends of the Earth press release, 8th Nov 2004