EU Watchdog Radio

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  Indemnifying Bayer: a corrupt company who uses corrupt science now wants to be rewarded for fraud 27.08.2026 32мин

  Bayer and its lobby groups are trying to get Congress in the States to indemnify them against lawsuits, giving them complete legal protection. Listen to our brand new episode where CEO’s Nina Holland talks to Naomi Oreskes. Naomi Oreskes is an historian of science, professor at Harvard University, she’s the author or co-author of 8 books, and over 150 articles and essays. She is the co-author, with Erik M. Conway, of the best-selling books ‘Merchants of Doubt’, and ‘The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loath Government and Love the Free Market’. ‘Merchants of Doubt’ identified parallels between the climate change debate and earlier different public controversies, notably the tobacco industry’s lobbying and propaganda campaign to obscure the link between smoking and lung cancer.
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  What are Green Public Services and why do we need them? 24.06.2026 18мин

  In this episode, Marilisa Marigliano, Policy Officer at Counter Balance, speaks with Frank Vanaerschot, Director at Counter Balance, about their new briefing on green public services. As Europe faces rising living costs, energy crisis, and climate breakdown, they discuss how public investment can help deliver affordable housing, clean energy, and accessible public transport while accelerating decarbonisation.Check out the briefing: https://counter-balance.org/publications/briefing/green-public-services-briefing/
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  182 out of 184: This is what corporate capture looks like 28.05.2026 24мин

  We need to talk about what deregulation actually means in Brussels right now.It means one commissioner holding 184 meetings with external actors, 182 of them with business groups. It means indigenous Sami reindeer herders in Sweden losing their last migration route to a fast-tracked mine. It means the public funding the polluters' infrastructure while they keep the profits.In this episode of EU Watchdog Radio, Joana from Corporate Europe Observatory talks to colleagues Kenneth Haar and Rachel Tansey about their two new reports exposing the corporate machinery behind the EU's deregulation agenda — and the communities already bearing the costs.This is not simplification. This is corporate capture. Check out the reports: - This is what corporate capture looks like!- Permission to polluteWe're a small, independent organisation. If you can, support us and help us fight the good fight!
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  When Public Investment Fuels the Arms Race 30.04.2026 32мин

  In this episode, Marilisa Marigliano, Policy and Advocacy Officer at Counter Balance, speaks with Laëtitia Sédou, EU Project Manager at the European Network Against Arms Trade (ENAAT), about how EU public finance is fuelling the militarisation and boosting the global arms race. Together, they explore how deregulation is reducing safeguards in favour of the military sector, and how major military companies are gaining access not only to public funding, but even to “sustainable” investment labels.
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  The Pollution Playbook: How industry blocks regulation of toxic chemicals 26.03.2026 32мин

  In this episode, Joana from Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) talks Nina Holland, agribiz researcher and campaigner at CEO, to Rachel Radvany, environmental health campaigner at the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), and to Olivier De Schutter, legal scholar and university professor specialising in economic and social rights, who served served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food from 2008 to 2014 and, in 2020 was appointed UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.Together with CIEL, CEO launched a briefing into how the industry blocks regulation of toxic chemicals. It’s called “The pollution playbook”. What a great episode!
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  Unpacking the European clean industrial agenda 26.02.2026 46мин

  While negotiations for the next EU budget are underway, the European Commission’s plan to set up the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF) as the main vehicle to achieve its clean industrial agenda. In today’s episode Marilisa Marigliano talks with Angela Wigger and Rodrigo Fernandez to debunk the InvestEU program, which is set to be the cornerstone of the ECF, raising urgent questions about who benefits, an who actually decides the direction of Europe’s green transition. They expose the power relations and governance flaws that open the door for distortions in achieving a truly just transition in European industry. Are there alternatives to the current industrial policy? What would a transformative agenda look like?
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  The scramble for hydrogen in South Africa 11.12.2025 32мин

  In this episode, Joana and Pascoe, co-directors of Corporate Europe Observatory's new documentary "The scramble for hydrogen in South Africa" talk about the process behind the making of the film. It's a more relaxed and informal episode than usual, where you can get to know the whole truth behind the making of the film, and how you can host your very own screening!
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  At What Cost? The EU’s Race for Critical Raw Materials in the Global South 27.11.2025 18мин

  In this episode, Isabela Franco and Lora Verheecke from Counter Balance unpack the EU’s growing push for critical raw materials and its implications for the Global South. They discuss the Global Gateway, the Critical Raw Materials Act, the use of public funds to “de-risk” private investments and the lack of meaningful participation for impacted communities and Indigenous people. A concise and critical look at how Europe’s green, digital and defence ambitions risk reinforcing extractivist and neocolonial models.
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  There are now more Big Tech lobbyists than MEPs 13.11.2025 15мин

  Do you know how much money Big Tech is spending on lobbying in Brussels? How has this amount been increasing? On what is the money being funnelled to and what can we do about it? Listen to our new episode of the podcast EU Watchdog Radio to find out!
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  Green Hydrogen or Green Colonialism? 30.10.2025 16мин

  In this episode, Lora Verheecke, Policy Officer at Counter Balance, interviewed Hikma Bachegour, an Assistant Professor in the Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University in Fez, Morocco. They highlighted the impacts of European hydrogen projects in Morocco and how it could affect vulnerable communities, women, and gender minorities, who are too often left out of the decision-making process.
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  New season coming soon! 27.10.2025

  Stay tuned to a brand new season of EU Watchdog Radio, where new hosts Isabela Franco and Lora Verheecke from Counter Balance join Marcella Via and Joana Louçã from Corporate Europe Observatory.New episodes coming soon!
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  How trade tariffs and deregulation go hand in hand 23.07.2025 34мин

  Listen to the brand new podcast episode of EU Watchdog Radio, where CEO's campaigner and researcher Kenneth Haar discusses the link between the announced trade tariffs from the USA to the EU and deregulation. He presents the 5 buzzwords that you need to know in order to understand the deregulation agenda of the European Commission.
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  New GMOs deregulated: The wet dream of the biotech industry coming true 15.05.2025 27мин

  Listen to our new podcast episode, where Nina Holland talks about the intense lobby battle that the biotech industry has been waging to get its new generation of genetic modification techniques excluded from European GMO regulations. GMO stands for genetically modified organisms. This will mean that crops or wild plants made by using this new generation of genetic modification techniques, will no longer be subject to safety checks, monitoring or consumer labelling.The underlying key word for today’s episode is deregulation, and that is a complicated word because it can sound interesting, like it can sound that it will allow people or things to, I don't know, to go about their lives more easily, not so burdened by bureaucracy. However, what deregulation here actually refers to is the scrapping of rules to protect health and the environment. It is an argument used by the industry whenever they don’t want to be supervised and their products to be, well, regulated and maybe even labelled to tell consumers how they were produced, as is the case with GMOs.
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  From Huaweigate to the AI Act: how to bake bias in 21.03.2025 25мин

  Last week, Brussels went reeling under another corruption scandal! This time it's Chinese big tech giant Huawei whose offices just behind the European Parliament have been raided - along with those of 15 former and current MEPs from the EPP and S&D groups. Huawei is, according to the Belgian prosecutors, being investigated for ”active corruption within the European Parliament," including "remuneration for taking political positions, excessive gifts like food and travel expenses and regular invitations to football matches ... with a view to promoting purely private commercial interests in the context of political decisions”. The research was done by Follow the Money, Le Soir and Knack and the police raided 21 addresses in Brussels, Flanders, Wallonia and in Portugal and arrested several people. But while all eyes are on Huawei and China, we at CEO want to highlight a deeper, systemic scandal that was there in Qatargate and is here now: and that is the longstanding failure of the European institutions to properly defend democracy from influence operations. There’s ongoing and systemic failures of lobby monitoring, transparency, and ethics enforcement (including regarding MEP gifts and conflicts of interest). The EU needs to consolidate and speed up implementation of the ethics body to set up common ethical standards across EU institutions.In this episode, Bram Vranken, campaigner and reseracher at CEO will discuss a report he published in January and which focuses on the standard setting process of the AI act. He uncovered that many of the world’s major tech corporations - among them Huawei - are deeply involved in creating permissive, light-weight standards that risk hollowing out the EU’s AI Act. In short, in it Bram shows that with little to no transparency, private standard-setting organisations are writing rules that have legal status in the EU. Independent experts and civil society are out-numbered, under-funded, and struggling in the face of the corporate dominance.
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  EIB in focus: Rethinking Europe's financial future with Yanis Varoufakis 04.03.2025 33мин

  The EU’s financial system operates in the shadows, with institutions like the European Investment Bank (EIB) wielding immense financial power, but who actually benefits? In the latest episode of EU Watchdog Radio, we sit down with Yanis Varoufakis - former Greek Finance Minister, Member of the Greek Parliament, and relentless critic of financial elites - to dissect the EU’s economic machinery.From the European Investment Bank’s role in fueling corporate capture to the EU’s relentless push for competitiveness at the expense of social and environmental justice, we dig into the flaws of a system designed to benefit the few. In an exchange with Alexandra Gerasimcikova, Varoufakis unpacks the implications of Europe’s lack of political will to mobilise large scale public funds to build a green economy, prospects for Europe to compete with global actors in the field of artificial intelligence, the dangers of Europe’s growing military spending, and what bold changes are needed to shift power back to the people.Tune in for an unfiltered conversation that exposes the reality behind EU finance.
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  The corporate fight against PFAS restriction 16.01.2025 30мин

  What does a lipstick, a non-stick frying pan and Scotchgard have in common? They all contain PFAS, a.k.a., forever chemicals! In this episode, Vicky Cann, campaigner and researcher at CEO, explains how her huge report "Chemical reaction - Inside the corporate fight against the EU’s PFAS restriction" came to be and what were the most shocking results she unveiled. It can be read here 👉 https://corporateeurope.org/en/chemical-reaction #banpfas #toxicfreeeurope #foreverlobbying project
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  Meet the Big Meat Lobby 31.12.2024 37мин

  In this last episode of EU watchdog radio of 2024 we dive into the topic of the global power of the Big Meat lobby and how two dozen ultra rich companies dominate the political and policy agenda including at the FAO. We talk to professor Paul Behrens, climate expert at Oxford university and Caitlin Smith, senior campaigner at Changing Markets Foundation, about the report The new merchants of doubt. And don’t worry, we do not want to turn you into a vegan or vegetarian (would be healthy for you); but the bottom line is: we should eat way less meat in the rich parts of the world and give a little ecological space to the world’s poorer regions.
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  Inaction kills - The EU, Gaza, and the arms industry 19.11.2024 31мин

  On Monday 28 October, South Africa submitted a detailed memorial against Israel to the International Court of Justice, seeking to establish that Israel's military actions in Gaza amount to genoc1de.  Unsurprisingly, it was South Africa, a country from the Global South with a past marked by colonisation and brutal apartheid, that stood up against Israel. South Africa was supported by countries such as Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia, Namibia, the Maldives, Malaysia... but what about the EU? In this episode speak about the EU’s complicity in the genoc1de in Gaza and the role of the arms industry.
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  COP29 HyCOPrisy 14.11.2024 35мин

  After pressuring Azerbaijan to up gas production for export, the EU is using COP29 to greenwash the fossil fuel and its own climate image. In this episode we talk to Pascoe Sabido, campaigner and researcher at CEO, about his analyse the EU's hypocrisy as its climate goals and upholding human rights are overtaken by energy security demands and greenwashing.
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  A Commission for investors: public money for private gains 23.10.2024 44мин

  With the launch of the so-called “Investment Commission,” a worrisome agenda takes shape: prioritising supply chains and deregulation while neglecting vital public investment. In an era of renewed austerity, private profit reigns supreme, overshadowing the funds needed for a just transformation and climate goals. Chiara Casati and Frank Vanaerschot dig into the Draghi report, EIB updates, and Commission hearings. Brace yourselves for a “Commission for Investors.”