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BP - Extracting influence at the heart of the EU
Corporate Europe Observatory and Platform, January 2009
BP is one of the world’s leading international oil and gas companies (IOCs) and Europe’s second largest corporation. This report examines BP’s interface with Brussels, analysing what the company might achieve through European Union (EU) support and how the company stands to benefit from EU policies. It looks at the resources the company devotes to lobbying in Brussels and the methods it uses. Two case studies explore in more detail the role BP has played in shaping the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (Putting the Fox in Charge of the Henhouse) and how BP has benefited from the political weight of the EU in its dealings in Russia (BP and Russian Bear). It concludes that BP commands undue influence at the European level and that European energy security and environmental protection have been compromised through a false perception among decision-makers that what is good for BP is also good for the EU.
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