EU: corporate corruption controls

Avaaz, a reputable worldwide organisation, have identified the following information and are looking for urgent support.

Dear friends,
 

Top European Commission politicians are taking lucrative corporate lobbyist jobs and helping big business to control Brussels! Let's persuade the Commission to respond to a European Parliament demand for a tough new code of conduct -- sign the petition for new rules to stop these abuses of power:

It's outrageous -- over half of

move straight from their posts into lucrative

-- turning the EU into a "lobbyocracy" run by big business, not the people.

The European Parliament is up in arms and has just threatened to

to block officials rushing to become lobbyists. In a few days parliamentarians will meet to hear the Commission's proposals, but they need support to force a decisive change.

This is

, but it will take a massive public outcry. The grip of big business on EU decisions

. Click to sign the petition -- which will be delivered to top decision-makers at a meeting in the Parliament -- and forward this email to friends:

The

, as officials compete for the fattest pay cheque when they leave office and then put their relationships and influence to work for the highest bidder.

The recently resigned EU Industry Commissioner has already joined the boards of 4 large firms -- and

! And, months before she left office, another European Commissioner accepted a position with a giant insurance company which had a direct interest in decisions she was taking.

Such new jobs are supposed to be vetted by the Commission. But the

responsible for that is

. It had never blocked a single appointment until September, when - following outrage in the media - it prevented former financial services commissioner Charlie McCreevy going to work with a British bank.

, public and parliamentary pressure can break through Brussels complacency, block the industry commissioner’s appointments and

to fulfil his long-promised - but never implemented - promise for a

. Sign the petition and circulate widely:

In the world we all want, public servants will serve only the public, not personal or corporate agendas. Our governments are among our most powerful tools to create change, but they must be ours. Let's take back Brussels for the people of Europe.

With hope,

Alex, Benjamin, Ricken, Alice, Luis, Ben and all of the Avaaz team

P.S. Former European Commissioners continue to get paid 50% of their salary for three years, precisely to prevent them rushing to cash in with corporate jobs. Sticks are clearly needed alongside these carrots.

MORE INFORMATION:

EU Commission pressed on tougher rules for ex-Commissioners:

European Commission revolving door scandal:

Ethics committee blocks former Commissioner’s bank appointment:

Should former Commissioners be allowed to cash in?

MEPs hold Commission budget to ransom

From the Avaaz website...

"Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown says Avaaz "has driven forward the idealism of the world." Al Gore says "Avaaz is inspiring… it has already made a significant difference.” Zainab Bangura, the foreign minister of Sierra Leone, describes Avaaz as "an ally, and a rallying place, for disadvantaged people everywhere to help create real change.”

Now call me cynical but given the three examples quoted and their record of listening (or not) to the public voice, these are hardly  recommendations.

Whilst the idea of preventing politicians from taking up Lobbying employment after leaving the EU or any other political office may be good, no public voice will ever be listened to or acted upon for the pure and simple reason that the law would have to be signed into effect by the very people that are being called upon to stop doing it!

Avaaz started in the US and has spread itself globally in an effort to cut down corruption in Governments worldwide; given the corrupt state of most nations politics, especially the founding nations, they seem to have been singularly unsuccessful...

Politicians the world over are all the same, banding together under the same universal motto of "All for One and One for All."

Honesty and Politcs; now there's a novel thought...

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This message was last edited by foxbat on 02/11/2010.

The target of 50,000 petitioners has nearly been reached on this issue....

For those interested here's a little more about Avaaz:

Avaaz.org is a new global online advocacy community that brings people-powered politics to global decision-making.

Avaaz—meaning "voice" in several European, Middle Eastern and Asian languages—was launched in January 2007 with a simple democratic mission: organize citizens everywhere to help close the gap between the world we have and the world most people want.

writes of Avaaz' power to "give world leaders a deafening wake-up call"; the

 heralds "the biggest web campaigner across the world, rooting for crucial global issues.” and

calls Avaaz "a transnational community that is more democratic, and could be more effective than the United Nations.” Run by a virtual team on 3 continents, Avaaz operates in 14 languages.

Avaaz empowers its members to take action on pressing issues of international concern, from global poverty to the crises in the Middle East to climate change.

Since 2007, Avaaz has:

• taken over 20 million actions online and offline, including messages sent, phone calls and petition signatures, and over 70 million friends told.
• raised over $10 million online, including millions in funding and high tech support for human rights and democracy advocates in Burma, Zimbabwe, Tibet, Iran, Haiti and more.
• organized almost 10,000 rallies, flashmobs, vigils, marches and other online events—giving a massive boost to the climate change movement.
• won YouTube's Best Political Video of the Year Award, and the Huffington Post's "Ultimate Gamechanger in Politics" award.