November 16, 2007 

Its that time of year again – the worst EU Lobbying and Greenwash Awards 2007. Once again all your favourites - oil companies, car companies, nuclear companies, and PR companies are on the short-list. If you want to vote go here.

The ‘Worst EU Lobbying’ Award is to be given to the lobbyist, company or lobby group that in 2007 has employed the most deceptive, misleading, or otherwise problematic lobbying tactics in their attempts to influence EU decision-making.

In the ‘Worst EU Lobbying’ category you can vote for one of the following five nominees:

• BMW, Daimler and Porsche for their full-scale lobbying offensive to water-down and delay the EU mandatory targets for CO2 emissions from cars;

• EU public affairs consultancy Cabinet Stewart for running the International Council of Capital Formation (ICCF) - this so-called ‘unique European think-tank’ is in fact a front group for US-based opponents of the Kyoto Protocol;

• Viscount Etienne Davignon, for advising EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel about African development issues, even though he sits on the board for Suez – a transnational corporation looking to expand its energy and water business into Africa;

• The European Public Affairs Consultancies Association (EPACA) for its high-profile counter-campaign against the European Commission’s plans for a lobby transparency register;

• Repsol for misshaping the EU's research agenda on agrofuels to fit narrow commercial interests, at the expense of genuine measures to combat climate change.

This year there is an additional ‘Worst EU Greenwash’ Award for the company whose advertising, PR and lobbying lingo is most at odds with the real environmental impacts of their core business activities. In the ‘Worst EU Greenwash’ category you can vote for one of the following five nominees:

• Airbus for a series of adverts in which passenger jet silhouettes are filled with beautiful landscapes, pretending that their aeroplanes are green and clean;

• BAE Systems for promoting deadly weapons as environmentally friendly;

• ExxonMobil for purporting it is reducing its greenhouse gas emissions while in reality its emissions are increasing;

• The German Atomic Forum for its campaign “unloved climate protectionists”, abusing the public’s concern about climate change to promote nuclear energy;

• Shell for an advert suggesting that their oil refineries emit flowers not smoke.