Well that's where I'm coming from.No, I haven't read every line of the Treaty, but I do know that Brussels has led the way in most of the improvements for the environment that we've seen in Ireland since 1973. Plus I like the idea of a greater role for the European Parliament in shaping laws.
The size of the small print (and the large print) on the Cóir posters annoyed me. Interestingly, though I disagree with their arguments I just donated one cent to their campaign via PayPal to see if they asked me my nationality. They didn't, and I wonder whether that may create difficulties when it comes to oversight of their campaign accounts to SIPO. Cóir's campaign premises at 60a Capel Street - 'the Life House' (not to be confused with 'Outhouse' across the road) seems to be up for sale at the moment.
The Green Party held a special convention back in the Spring to see if we'd take a view on the Treaty. As less than two third of the members present (although it was a decent majority) voted for the Treaty, the Party didn't take a view, but that hasn't prevented individual Party members from campaigning, and that's what I'm doing here, I'm voting yes.
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Toxic Brussels Lobby - IG Farben
http://galwaytent.blogspot.com/search/label/IG%20Farben
galwaytent@gmail.com
[image] © Greenpeace / J. Roettgers
BASF, fka I.G. FARBEN
Are toxicology standards for the Dublin Bay Incinerator controlled by the manufacturer of Zyklon B gas?
* BASF leads the industry lobbying offensive against EU attempts to regulate toxic chemicals (1). When BASF’s Eggert Voscherau became president of the European chemicals lobby CEFIC, he replaced the group’s fairly conciliatory approach to REACH with far more aggressive campaigning.
DuPont and Dow Chemical are also heavily involved in campaigning against tighter EU environmental and health regulations on toxic chemicals, the so-called REACH.
The anti-REACH offensive may well be the largest and most irresponsible corporate lobbying campaign in EU history.
BASF confirmed to the press in 2005 that it had 235 politicians under contract.
Ex: Jürgen Creutzmann, Vice President of the Parliament of Rhineland-Palatinate. Creutzmann has been in continuous paid employment since 1973 with BASF. This clear conflict of interest has never prevented Creutzmann from presenting industry arguments against REACH.
Ex: Karl Kress, CDU, has also claimed in several speeches that REACH would have a detrimental impact on industry competitiveness in North Rhine Westfalia and could become a “job killer”. Kress admitted in 2005 that the chemical company Bayer pays him a monthly salary of €3,050, during a “passive phase of partial retirement”.
Angela Merkel became chancellor in autumn 2005, one of her first official activities was to ask for and obtain a postponement of the European Council of Ministers’ decision on REACH.
German MEPs occupied key positions in the REACH debate. In the current legislature 6 out of the 10 European Parliament Committees involved in REACH are led by German MEPs acting as rapporteurs
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REF:
BASF http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IG_Farben
http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/international/press/reports/toxic-lobby-how-the-chemical.pdf
http://www.mazal.org/archive/nmt/07/NMT07-T0378.htm
(1) Source:
Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO)
De Wittenstraat 25, 1052 AK Amsterdam, The Netherlands
tel: +31-20-6127023
fax: +31-20-6861208
email: ceo@corporateeurope.org
website: www.corporateeurope.org
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