Agrofuels lobby and Finnish MEP win 2008 Worst EU Lobbying
Awards
from corporateeurope.org

The winners of the 2008 Worst EU Lobbying Awards have been revealed
at a ceremony in Brussels yesterday evening, despite a last minute
attempt to gag the organisers with legal action from one of the
candidates. More than 8500 people took part in the online public
vote.

One of the candidates for the Worst Conflict of Interest Award,
suspended Commission official Fritz-Harald Wenig, unsuccessfully
tried to silence the Worst EU Lobbying Awards last week by taking
legal action in the Court of First Instance in Brussels to have his
name removed from the nominations and not have his name mentioned
during the Worst Lobbying Awards ceremony. The court ruled that
freedom of speech was more important in this case.

This years Award for the Worst EU Lobbying 2008, with more than 50%
of the votes, goes to a joint nomination for the agrofuel lobbyists,
the Malaysian Palm Oil Council, Brazilian sugar barons UNICA and
energy company Abengoa Bioenergy for their use of misleading
information and greenwash. The lobbyists tried to influence crucial
debates in the European Parliament and Council by claiming that
agrofuels (crops used for fuel for cars and lorries) are sustainable.

The Worst Conflict of Interest Award 2008 goes to the Finnish MEP
Piia-Noora Kauppi, with 26% of the votes cast. MEP Kauppi has been
promoting the interests of her future employer, a banking lobbying
group, while still an active member of the European Parliament.
Kauppi has consistently urged light-touch regulation for the banking
sector and in January 2009 will officially be employed by the
Federation of Finnish Financial Services.

The Worst EU Lobbying Awards 2008 is organised by Corporate Europe
Observatory, Friends of the Earth Europe, Lobbycontrol and Spinwatch.


Voting Results:

Worst Lobbying Award

The agrofuels lobby (including MPOC, Unica and Abengoa) 52%

The International Air Transport Association (IATA 14%

Gplus and Aspect Consulting 13%

The European Alliance for Access to Safe Medicines (EAASM) 12%

The European Business and Parliament Scheme (EBPS) 10%

[Total online votes cast 8643]


Worst Conflict of Interest Award

Piia-Noora Kauppi MEP 26%

Dr Caroline Jackson MEP 23%

Klaus-Heiner Lehne MEP 22%

Ex-European Commission officials Petite, Klotz and Kjølbye 14%

Commission official Fritz-Harald Wenig 14%

[Total online votes cast 8394]


Full details on all the nominees can be found at:

 http://www.worstlobby.eu/2008/vote