Apart from supervisory and budgetary responsibilities, the European Parliament is the arena for democratic debate on EU-level issues and actions. It has great influence over several important decisions, such as European chemicals policy.
A problem in the European Union is the discrepancy of outside influence. Earlier this year, Corporate Europe Observatory released a report describing how corporate interests influence decisions in the law-making process within the EU Commission, arguing that civil society groups are unable to match the privileged access and financial resources of the corporate sector.
“Electing environmentally conscious parliamentarians improves the chances of the European Parliament stifling unreasonable draft decisions”
A result from this extensive lobby work is that draft decisions from the EU Commission tend to favour industry more than they should.
CONTINUE READING ON chemsec.org