INSIDE THIS ISSUE… Undercover in Qatar Jubilant corporate lobbyists hailed the outcome of the Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Qatar as a victory for free trade. After a long campaign for a new round of negotiations, the EU and US finally got more or less the result they had been aiming for. Business had a heavy presence behind the scenes in Doha, but remained uncharacteristically invisible. With Northern government delegations faithfully promoting the corporate agenda, there was no reason for business to flex its muscles in public. | Read More | TABD Back on Track The TABD’s annual meeting was downgraded to a much smaller and less ambitious video conference as a result of the events of September 11 th . This diminished ‘Principals Meeting’ clearly presented a setback to the TABD, however the agreement to launch a new round of trade negotiations in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Qatar a month later has more than made up for a relatively lacklustre year for the business dialogue. | Read More | Industry’s Rio+ 10 Strategy: Banking on Feelgood PR Captains of industry gathered in Paris in early October for the first major strategy meeting on the UN’s Rio+ 10 summit, hosted by Business Action for Sustainable Development (BASD). The tone of the conference showed that business is feeling the heat from groups campaigning for binding international rules on corporate activities. | Read More | Lobbyists Harvest the Fruits of their Labour at COP 6 Bis “A geopolitical earthquake”, “a triumph for citizens all over the world”, “a major tactical victory”, cheered the NGOs at the successful closing of the ‘COP 6 bis’ climate talks in Bonn in July 2001. Yet whether the outcome justifies quite such jubilant celebration remains open to question. | Read More | COP 7: Widening the Loopholes The latest round of climate talks aimed to clarify details about the use of flexible mechanisms in the implementation of the Protocol. Given that pro- Kyoto parties are keen to have the Protocol ratified before Rio +10 next September, this effectively meant that the meeting was geared towards keeping the least progressive countries happy and willing to ratify. | Read More | “Greening Business from the Inside” - Solution or Smokescreen? Recently, we received a letter from Claude Fussler of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, challenging our analysis of the organisation’s activities. We enclose it here, with our response to Mr Fussler. | Read More | Rio+ 10 Debate: Responding to UNED Our reply to a letter sent to us by Felix Dodds, UNED Forum Executive Director in response to an article we published in the last Observer, entitled “Rio+ 10 and the Corporate Greenwash of Globalisation.” | Read More | Responding to ‘The Paradox of Anti- Globalisation’ This Autumn, Belgian Prime Minister and current President of the European Union, Guy Verhofstadt, wrote an open letter entitled ‘The Paradox of Anti- Globalisation’. CEO has written a short reply. | Read More | Book Review ‘Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain’, by George Monbiot | Read More | This issue of the Corporate Europe Observer is brought to you by Belén Balanyá, Ann Doherty, Olivier Hoedeman, Adam Ma'anit and Erik Wesselius.Many thanks to Kevin Smith (Rising Tide), for the article on COP-7, and to Greg Muttitt (Platform) for the article on COP-6 Bis. Editing and layout by Karen Grant.

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