The results of a new survey undertaken by Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), demonstrates that, despite increased calls for the financial transparency of EU think tanks, secrecy prevails. Also large EU corporations, known to be major financers of EU think tanks, fail to disclose their funding for these institutions. Clearly, enforceable EU rules are needed to ensure that think tanks and their corporate backers abide by basic transparency standards. The debate around the European Transparency Initiative (ETI) appears to have by-passed most EU think tanks. In March 2005, EU Commissioner Siim Kallas launched the ETI, in part to tackle concerns that the transparency of lobbyists working to influence EU decision-making “is too deficient in comparison to the impact of their activities”.[1] Think tanks are included in the Commission’s definition of "lobbyists". (MORE)
http://www.corporateeurope.org/ThinkTankSurvey2006.html
http://www.corporateeurope.org/ThinkTankSurvey2006.html