The Brussels Business (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The Brussels Business - Who controls the European Union? |
| Original title | The Brussels Business - Who Runs the European Union? |
| Country of production | Belgium ; Austria |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2012 |
| length | 88 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Matthieu Lietaert, Friedrich Moser |
| script | Friedrich Moser, Matthieu Lietaert |
| production | Friedrich Moser, Steven Dhoedt |
| music | Johannes Rothenaicher |
| camera | Friedrich Moser |
| cut | Jesper Osmund, Friedrich Moser, Michaela Müllner |
The Brussels Business - Who controls the European Union? is a documentary by Friedrich Moser and Matthieu Lietaert about the lack of transparency and the influence of lobbyists on the decision-making process in Brussels , the capital of the European Union .
action
The film dispenses with an evaluative comment or the voice of the interviewer. The people (see cast) express themselves directly in interviews, accompanied by a camera team or from the off on certain facts and topics.
Pascal Kerneis initially worked for the European Banking Federation for nine years. He created the European Services Forum (ESF) as a counterpart to the European Round Table (ERT), as there was no common interest representation for the service industry at the time .
From Leon Brittan's point of view , a joint representation of the interests of the service industry, as it already existed in the USA, was also a necessary step in the EU, because the European Commission is also dependent on the ideas and suggestions of the lobbyists .
As Managing Director of the ESF, Pascal Kerneis represents around 80% of the service exporters and investors based in the EU and thus around 60 million employees with a turnover of 50% of the EU's GDP . He describes lobbying as " networking " because it is primarily about contact between people. He defines the work of lobbyists essentially as influencing draft laws , working towards changing legal texts and the targeted placement of ideas and proposals. The common goal with international corporations is to open the market and remove trade barriers . The advantages for lobbyists in Brussels are, on the one hand, that a large part of the laws for the European nation-states comes from Brussels and that international treaties that are signed by the EU are binding for the European countries. From his point of view, lobbying is necessary because the governments are dependent on direct information from industry and service companies.
Olivier Hoedeman describes the decision-making process in the EU as fragile and easy to manipulate, behind which a real industry of lobbyists operates in secret. After Washington, DC , Brussels is home to the world's second largest lobbying industry, with an estimated 2,500 lobby organizations and 15,000 lobbyists. The first point of contact for lobbyists is the European Commission. For 20 years he has been investigating who the lobbyists are who influence decisions by the Commission, how they proceed and what connections they have with the EU elite.
Origin and influence of the ERT
In the early 90s, Olivier Hoedeman was active as an environmentalist in an NGO . In doing so, they became aware of a number of EU regulations that had been directly determined by industry. Then they founded a group, the Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), with the aim of documenting such cases and developing a strategy to reduce the excessive influence of lobbyists.
In the summer of 1993 they discovered that the European Round Table was behind the “ Trans-European Networks ” project . The European Commission's program was just a copy of the ERT's proposal.
Etienne Davignon, on the other hand, criticized early on that there was not enough contact between the Commission and industry. He founded the ERT with important heads of European corporations, in collaboration with the then Commission President Jacques Delors .
After an annual meeting of the CEO in December 1993, they occupy the ERT office. Keith Richardson, then Secretary General of the ERT, let them go, which gave the group the opportunity to copy some documents showing the influence of the ERT on EU decisions and close cooperation. Using the ERT's press list, they faxed a press release they had written about the ERT's activities to the international media , which, however, met with extremely little media interest. According to Olivier Hoedeman, the ERT tried above all to introduce the internal market, monetary union and a flexible labor market, and to implement austerity measures and infrastructure projects.
Political scientist Maria Green Cowels took an interest in the ERT, as there was predominantly ignorance or uncertainty about the internal market program in the USA . The great influence of the ERT was confirmed by her in a work, also based on ERT documents to which Keith Richardson gave her access. After Europe was economically lagging behind the USA and Japan in the 1980s , the European Networks project was envisaged by Pehr Gyllenhammar, the then head of Volvo and a founding member of the ERT, as a kind of Marshal's plan for Europe. The assertiveness and power of the ERT was also shown by a fax from the then head of Philips Wisse Dekker , which he sent to all heads of state shortly before the European Single Act was signed . In the so-called “Dekker Telegram” he wrote that one possible consequence of not introducing the internal market would be the migration of companies.
The CEO summarized the results of the further investigations in a book entitled "Europe, Inc.", which they published at the same time as the EU summit in Amsterdam , but which did not meet with media interest.
According to Pascal Kerneis, the internal market in Europe not only led to an economically strong Europe, but also increased Europe's political influence in the international community, as a strong representation of interests of European companies in Brussels enables uniform positions and demands of the EU, for example vis-à-vis the USA .
Formation of civil society resistance
According to Lori Wallach, the industry went one step further with the Multilateral Agreement on Investment . The aim of this agreement was to prevent governments from regulating large corporations, capital and investment. This was the first time that activist groups initiated a public discussion.
Accompanied by great media interest, the emerging civil society resistance also prevented the WTO Ministerial Conference of Economics and Trade Ministers in Seattle in 1999 .
CEO success: the transparency register
After further unsuccessful attempts by the CEO to create more transparency in the activities of lobbyists in the EU and to regulate their influence, they found a supporter in Siim Kallas who launched the European Transparency Initiative in winter 2004/05. Presumably the think tank " Friends of Europe " blocked this initiative, so that a transparency register was only introduced in 2008 in which lobbyists can voluntarily register.
Craig Holman, who introduced the United States' Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, which provides a similar register and was enforced after the Jack Abramoff corruption scandal , warns not to downplay the extent and influence of lobbyists in Brussels. On the one hand, the lobby of American corporations is also active in Brussels and, on the other hand, such a corruption scandal in the EU cannot be ruled out.
Think tanks in Brussels
According to Olivier Hoedeman, the lack of a public European debate leads to the emergence of think tanks , which act as forums for interest groups and companies to represent their points of view and demands. Think tanks are problematic in that they are mostly financially dependent on companies. As a rule, think tanks or research institutes are founded directly by corporations that publish studies whose results are congruent with the interests of the corporations.
Financial crisis and lobbying
Olivier Hoedeman and Erik Wesselius criticize the actions of Commission President Barroso , who set up a committee of experts to solve the crisis, but which consists mainly of board members from large American and European banks.
Olivier Hoedeman asks whether the liberalization and deregulation implemented by lobbyists are not the cause of the crisis.
In conclusion, Pascal Kerneis underlines the need for clear rules and laws.
production
The Brussels Business was produced by Steven Dhoedt (VisualAntics - Be) and Friedrich Moser (green + blue communication - Austria).
occupation
- Pascal Kerneis, Managing Director of the European Services Forum
- Olivier Hoedeman, Corporate Europe Observatory employee
- Erik Wesselius, Corporate Europe Observatory employee
- Keith Richardson, Secretary General of the European Round Table. (1988-1998)
- Maria Green Cowels, a political scientist at American University in Washington, DC
- Viscount Étienne Davignon , EU Industry Commissioner (1977–1985), member of the European Round Table (1986–2001)
- Sir Leon Brittan , EU Trade Commissioner (1993–1999)
- Lori Wallach, activist, member of the Public Citizen. Washington, DC
- Craig Holman, lobby reformer, member of the Public Citizen. Washington, DC
- Siim Kallas , Vice President of the European Commission
reception
Premieres
The film first opened in Austrian cinemas on March 16, 2012 and on July 24, 2012 in Germany. In Brussels itself, the film was shown in cinemas from April 19, 2012.
Television broadcast
The documentary first ran on January 27, 2013 at 11:05 p.m. on ORF 2, and on February 12, 2013 at 8:16 p.m. on Arte. Reruns on Arte took place on February 24, 2013 at 1:35 a.m. and on March 5, 2013 at 9:45 a.m.
marketing
An online platform “The Brussels Business Online” was set up on arte.tv.
Awards
The film was awarded the Best Pitch at The Bips (Best International Project Showcase) in the Crossmedia category of the Sunny Side of the Doc 2010 .
Reviews
“In the new documentary thriller The Brussels Business, Austrian director Friedrich Moser and Belgian co-author / director Matthieu Lietaert take a look behind the scenes of the EU's center of power in Brussels and cover the clandestine influence of corporate groups on political processes within the European single market. While representatives of the most diverse interest groups have their say on the subject of lobbying, the tension-enriched staging of the documentary helps to make the dry matter of the complex, political events in Brussels appear interesting and understandable. "
“Moser and Lietaert are not interested in showing how lobbyists work in Brussels. They also focused too much on industry for that. Are groups like Greenpeace not lobbying? Moser and Lietaert are looking for someone to blame for the fact that the EU has developed differently from what they - the two authors of this film - would obviously have liked to see. Can you imagine that many Europeans see it differently? “Was it naive to have a European dream?” It says at the end. "Was it naive to have our European dream?"
Web links
- The Brussels Business in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Austrianfilm - The Brussels Business - Who runs the European Union. Retrieved August 13, 2018 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Putting Europe's lobbyists in focus . Euronews . Retrieved May 2, 2012.
- ↑ “The Brussels Business” - lobbying in Brussels . Euronews. May 1, 2012. Retrieved May 2, 2012.
- ↑ a b c The Brussels Business . European social documentary (ESoDoc). Archived from the original on September 21, 2013. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 2, 2012.
- ↑ Cinema releases on imdb.com . Retrieved February 14, 2013.
- ↑ TV program Arte . Retrieved February 14, 2013.
- ^ Julia Weninger: The Brussels Business. filmering.at, March 15, 2012, accessed on February 14, 2013 .
- ↑ Hendrik Kafsack: The Brussels Business. faz.net, February 12, 2012, accessed February 14, 2013 .
