European Policy Centre

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Twenty-pound-notes.jpg This article is part of the Lobbying Portal, a sunlight project from Spinwatch.

The European Policy Centre (EPC) is a pro-business European think tank, founded in 1996. It is committed to making European integration work and enjoys an influential position within European politics. According to the ECP website its members include companies, professional and business federations, trade unions, diplomatic missions, regional and local bodies, as well as NGOs representing a broad range of civil society interests, foundations, international and religious organisations.[1] The EPC defines its mission as "contributing to the construction of Europe", and to achieve this it "encourages a debate among all significant interest groups and channels the results to policy-makers". It makes no secret of placing "special emphasis on strengthening the interface of government with business". [2] The EPC is one of the most prominent EU think tanks it relies on corporate funding and spokespeople often appear in the media as neutral commentators. [3]

The European Policy Centre is based in Résidence Palace 155 rue de la Loi Brussels, a formerly a luxury apartment block that now contains offices for media organisations, think tanks including Lisbon Council and the journo-lobbying website TechCentralStation that Corporate Europe Observatory describes as "an aggressive US journo-lobbying website funded by companies like Microsoft, Exxon and McDonalds. The website www.Tech CentralStation.be is full of the kind of furious attacks on environmental and social legislation that are more commonly associated with radio talkshows from the US mid-west". [4] The EPC makes no secret of its pro business stance. Corporate Europe Observatory report:

"We are action oriented and we believe that business must be more involved in public policies."[5]

History

The Centre, as the EPC calls itself, was established in January 1997 by a trio of prominent public affairs people, Stanley Crossick, godfather of Brussels lobbying; Max Kohnstamm, former vice president of the Jean Monnet Action Committee; and John Palmer, former European editor of The Guardian. In 1991 Crossick, Kohnstamm and Palmer had founded the Belmont European Policy Centre, which was the predecessor of the EPC.

The EPC's bias towards industry is well reflected in the composition of its advisory board, which together with the advisors' team helps the three founders run the Centre, and also in its membership. The Centre claims to include trade unions, but in fact the only representative is Emilio Gabaglio, secretary-general of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), well-known for its constructive approach towards neoliberal European Union policies.

There are no other representatives of 'civil society' involved. However, the board does include six European parliamentarians, five former directors-general and a vice president of the European Commission, journalists from newspapers such as Le Monde and the Financial Times, corporate directors from Philips and Mars, and influential industrialists such as Peter Sutherland (former European commissioner and GATT director and current chairman of British Petroleum and Goldman Sachs International); the former and current ERT secretary generals Keith Richardson [1] and Wim Philippa; UNICE secretary general Dirk Hudig, and Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa from the executive board of the European Central Bank. The EPC enjoys significant financial support from its corporate members such as ABB, BAT, BP, British Telecom and Solvay -- all members of the European Roundtable of Industrialists (ERT) -- and other large corporations such as Dow, DuPont, Philip Morris and SmithKline Beecham. In exchange, these corporate donors are provided services such as regular contact with decision makers. [2] [3]

EPC: Roundtable on Alcohol Related Harm

Alcohol badge.jpg This article is part of the Spinwatch public health oriented Alcohol Portal project.

The EPC were asked to chair a series of four meetings intended to‘identify areas of agreement between the stakeholders as to actions that can contribute effectively to the reduction of alcohol-related harm and indicate where and why there is disagreement, and in so doing help create confidence between stakeholders’.[6] The EPC invited a number of industry stakeholders, public health NGOs the European Commission members states and academic experts. The substance of the meetings involved working through 78 issues related to alcohol policy presented by the European Commission in an informal draft of their communication on Alcohol. Each item was graded on the basis of a traffic lights system, green issues were broadly agreeable to all present and 68 of the measures were, to the surprise of health campaigners green. Seven were amber, indicating no overall agreement but that some compromises might be reached. Three were categorised as red issues where the industry simply refused to negotiate. [7]

Dr Peter Anderson, author of the Alcohol In Europe report (2006) commented “The European Policy Centre (EPC) describes itself as ‘an independent, not-for-profit think tank, committed to making European integration work’. Its independence is, of course, ensured by the fact that its prime corporate members and sponsors include InBev, the world’s largest brewer and Philip Morris International”. [8] The final outcome of this process, and other consultations resulted in the launch of the European Alcohol and Health Forum.

People

Members

Members listed on The EPC's Website include:

Platinum Members

Gold Members

References

  1. ↑ European Policy Centre, About Us: Mission Statement accessed 1st November 2011
  2. ↑ European Policy Centre, About Us: Mission Statement accessed 1st November 2011
  3. ↑ Corporate Europe Observatory, Lobby Planet: Brussels the EU Quarter July 2005, accessed 1st November 2011
  4. ↑ Corporate Europe Observatory, Lobby Planet: Brussels the EU Quarter July 2005, accessed 1st November 2011
  5. ↑ Quoted in "Crossing the Business and Political Divide", by Rory Watson, the European Voice 9-15 July 1998.
  6. ↑ Corporate Europe Observatory, Part One: The European Policy Centre European Think Tank Series, Issue 2, October 1998,
  7. ↑ EPC The EPC Last Accessed July 2007
  8. ↑ Anderson & Baumberg, Alcohol Policy: Who should sit at the table? Addiction Volume 102, No. 2 pp 335-336 (online subscription required)
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