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Covert industry funding fuels the expansion of radical rightwing EU think tanks

Corporate Europe Observatory, July 2005

Over the last few years, the EU capital Brussels has experienced a huge growth in the number of new think tanks seeking to influence the EU's political debate. A large number of these new players advocate radical "free market" ideology. The turn to the right in European politics over the last few years has boosted the self-confidence of think tanks in Europe who promote radical versions of laissez-faire capitalism. Groups that only a few years ago were marginal and isolated on the political fringes now appear self-assured, well funded and effectively networked at the European level, with strong Transatlantic links.

Concern about the rising political activity of these think tanks is accentuated not only because they adhere to an extreme right wing economic orthodoxy, but also because they have found well-heeled allies in the corporate sphere who are prepared to fund advocacy activities as part of their own corporate political strategy. As evidence presented in this report indicates, it is very difficult to obtain precise information about these corporate funding strategies, as neither the corporations, nor the think tanks are obliged to disclose comprehensive data about their financial activities. This secrecy enables corporations to play a double game of nurturing a public image of corporate social responsibility while at the same time funding think tanks that fight social, consumer protection and environmental legislation across the board. Furthermore, in principle, think tanks are not expected to engage in direct lobbying on specific legislation. However, research by Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) shows that in practice the line between their activities and lobbying is blurred.

A web of entanglement

Ideologically, the right-wing think tanks emerging in Europe can be compared to powerful US think tanks like the Heritage Foundation and the Competitive Enterprise Institute. For decades, these Washington D.C. based institutions have played a major role in the US, shaping public debate and government policies. Their activities have to a large extent been financed by generous corporate donations.[1]

In 1993, the Centre for the New Europe (CNE) was the first of this particular brand of think tanks to open its Brussels office. Others soon followed, including the European Enterprise Institute, Institut Economique Molinari, Institut Thomas More and affiliates of US think tanks, the International Council for Capital Formation and Tech Central Station Europe. Their numbers swell when adding a substantial number of likeminded think tanks that while based elsewhere in Europe have a clear strategy to influence EU debates. This includes the London-based International Policy Network and the Paris-based Institut Montaigne. These groups who would once have been regarded as loony fringe organisations, are expanding fast and working their way into mainstream EU political debate. While their funding sources remain a well-protected secret, research by CEO has revealed that it is large corporations that foot the bill for the expansion of these radical rightwing think tanks.

Mont Pèlerin Society

The Stockholm Network builds on a long tradition of international networking among think tanks promoting radical free market ideology, in which the Mont Pèlerin Society (MPS) has played a key role.[2] This international network of neoliberal intellectuals was founded by Friedrich von Hayek in 1947 and has gradually expanded to over 1000 members from across the globe.[3] Some of its more well known members include Czech president Vaclav Klaus, former European Commissioner Bolkestein and Italian minister of Defence Antonio Martino. Over the past sixty years, MPS has worked to "win the battle of ideas", promoting a vision of society and economy where very little is not left to market forces. In doing this, they have worked within academia and via an ever-expanding network of "advocacy think tanks".[4] Compared to other international elite networks like the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderbergers, MPS nurtures a more purist, radical version of neoliberalism. The EU was not a major focus for hardline neoliberal think tanks until around 1990, and the Stockholm Network reflects that this activity in the EU is increasing dramatically.

In Europe, the funding of hardline neoliberal think tanks by large corporations is not a new phenomenon. For example, US pharmaceuticals and oil firms have fuelled the work of ultraliberal institutions in Europe for years. Even though information about this funding activity is shrouded in a veil of secrecy, the evidence that can be pieced together is sufficient enough to raise concern. For example Exxon Mobil, a virulent opponent of the Kyoto Protocol has funded the International Policy Network, the Centre for a New Europe, Tech Central Station and the International Council for Capital Formation. They are also suspected to fund the work of the European Enterprise Institute.[5] Exxon Mobil funding for The Centre for a New Europe and International Policy Network more than doubled between 2003 and 2004, reaching respectively $80,000 and $115,000.[6] While concrete figures are impossible to come by in the current regulatory climate, off the record comments in Brussels have revealed that CNE also receives funding from US pharmaceuticals giants Pfizer and Merck.

The main liaison channel for European think tanks is the pan-European Stockholm Network. The Stockholm Network was founded in September 1997 and was originally run by the Swedish think tank Timbro.[7] It claims to bring together over 120 think tanks from across Europe.[8] The member groups are primarily dogmatic free-marketeers who want to introduce minimalist "flat taxes" (thus ending redistribution via taxation), terminate social protection systems and privatise healthcare. They attack socially or environmentally progressive legislation, which is in place or under discussion, and that places restrictions on market activity.[9] For example, these think tanks consistently cast doubt on the seriousness of climate change, oppose environmental regulations and promote free-market pseudo-solutions to virtually every problem.

It is difficult to close the loop on what is a complex web of relations between these think tanks in the US and Europe, their networks such as the Stockholm Network and their corporate funders. The lack of financial transparency on the part of the think tanks is a major obstacle.

An example of the web is the close relationship between the Stockholm Network and the Heritage Foundation, one of the most powerful rightwing think tanks in Washington DC.[10] In 2000, the Heritage Foundation employed 205 people and had a budget of 38 million US$.[11] The think tank boasts about how US President Bush's domestic and foreign policies come "straight out of the Heritage play book". They frequently send staff to Europe and have worked closely with five like-minded European think tanks to produce and launch a European edition of their Index of Economic Freedom, which ranks countries according to criteria like tax reduction and deregulation policies.[12]

The support from large corporations goes beyond funding. For example US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has played a major part in Europe, getting this kind of political advocacy off the ground. Michael W. Hodin, the company's Vice President Corporate Affairs Europe, played an active role in creating both the Stockholm Network and the Centre for the New Europe.[13] At a February 2003 Stockholm Network seminar on "How to grow a think tank", Catherine Windels, Director of Policy Communications at Pfizer, spoke on the theme "What do business sponsors look for from think tanks?"[14] Windels is also a board member of the Centre for a New Europe.[15]

Centre for the New Europe

The Centre for the New Europe (CNE) has around 15 paid staff and is steadily expanding. It describes itself as "Europe's leading Brussels based free market think tank". CNE runs an Environment Forum aimed at "debunking the moral panics and junk science that all too often dominate today's environmental debate". The programme is run by Edgar Gärtner, a former editor of the magazine of WWF Germany who is now crusading against "Öko-Dogmatismus" (eco-dogmatism).[16] One of CNE's regular activities is a parliamentary assistants forum ('free pizza and beer'), which typically features attacks on EU environmental policies that are based on 'junk science'.

Organising to win the 'battle of ideas': The Stockholm Network

The Stockholm Network describes itself as "Europe's only dedicated service organisation for market-oriented think tanks and thinkers" and employs seven people in its London office. Led by director Helen Disney, the Stockholm Network produces a weekly e-newsletter and a flow of expensive, glossy publications, such as the "State of the Union" report on "Market-oriented reform in the EU" and the newsletter 'Eye on Europe'. The list of 123 member organisations includes free-market hardliners like the Adam Smith Institute (UK), Institut Montaigne (France), Timbro (Sweden) and numerous think tanks named after the godfather of neoliberalism, Friedrich Hayek.[17] It includes over 20 think tanks from the new EU member states in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), as well as a similar number from the CEE countries not (yet) part of the EU.[18] The Stockholm Network also includes in its membership various institutes related to political parties with conservative and liberal leanings, such as the European Ideas Network (linked to the Christian Democrats in the European Parliament).[19]

The discourse of the Stockholm Network is far more strategic and media savvy than most radical neoliberal think tanks, whose ideological zeal often prevents them from reaching a larger audience. Layers of mainstream rhetoric conceal the Network's ideological agenda, where virtually every aspect of society is to be left to unregulated markets. It is only during internal workshops that the undiluted free market fundamentalism of the Stockholm Network is revealed. This means that the explicit agenda of the Network is not so obvious, and may explain why there appear to be some unlikely members. Another reason may be that the Stockholm Network uses a very flexible definition of "members". For example, the European Policy Centre (EPC), one of the leading think tanks in Brussels, was listed as a member of the Stockholm Network, but without having given its consent.[20] The same goes for Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft (INSM), a German think tank advocating neoliberal reforms under the slogan "New Social Market Economy".[21] INSM only agreed to an exchange of links but features as a member in Stockholm Network publications.

Fundraising to win the battle of ideas

A conference organised by the Stockholm Network earlier this year, provided an opportunity to see how think tanks perceive their own role within politics and their plans to increase their corporate funding. It highlighted the increasing confidence of these groups who see an expanding space for their ideas in the current political climate.

In February 2005, around 50 people from across Europe attended the Stockholm Network's "Workshop for European Think Tanks" entitled "Selling Yourself". In an up-market hotel in central Brussels, they heard Tim Evans of the Centre for the New Europe (CNE) explain that "free market conservatism" and "anarcho-capitalism" is a product of huge value to corporations and foundations that want to promote these ideas. In his opening pep talk, Evans called on the assembled think tanks to aim for nothing less than winning the "battle of ideas". The Brussels-based CNE, known for its annual Capitalist Ball (an invitation-only event held in a luxurious venue in central Brussels)[22], plays a key role in the Stockholm Network.

The workshop started with a session on media training led by Robin White, former PR advisor to Mark Moody-Stuart when he was Chair of Shell. It then moved onto its key topic, fundraising, promoted as "Selling intangible ideas to tangible donors". Martin Summers of British American Tobacco (BAT), one of the world's largest tobacco firms, recalled his time as an intern in the 1980s with the Cato Institute (an influential Washington D.C. based rightwing "libertarian" think tank) when there were only four hardline free market think tanks in Europe. "This meeting would not have been possible then", he concluded. Summers continued with a very practical speech about how to raise funds from European corporations. Attracting corporate funding, he argued, is simply a matter of showing "that you can persuade people to understand, promote and pursue pro-market ideas and policies". Summers complained that some free-market think tanks have a tendency to restrict themselves by preaching only to the converted. He stressed "it does not help to quote Hayek". Summers recommended that free market think tanks present themselves as civil society, and this would also help them to access "corporate social responsibility" (CSR) funding which many businesses have added to their PR budgets in recent years.

Michel Kelly-Gagnon, CEO of L'Institut économique de Montréal (IEDM) explained how his think tank raises funds from corporations and wealthy individuals in Canada and the US.[23] "We may be anarcho-capitalists wanting to kill all politicians", Kelly-Gagnon joked and then stressed the importance of adapting to the language of potential funders. Kelly-Gagnon recommended to pursue projects "in synergy with a certain company or sector". When the Canadian pulp and paper industry was criticized by environmentalists, IEDM contacted the companies and offered to help present their arguments, in return for funding. The think tank also offered to help a big aluminium producer fight corporate taxes. An offer which the company gladly accepted.

Another speaker, Nicole Gray Conchar of the London-based International Policy Network (IPN), presented the fundraising techniques used by US think tanks such as the Cato Institute and the Manhattan Institute. In Europe, unlike the US, it is harder to raise money through individual donations, so she encouraged think tanks to "go for corporate money". The IPN, known for its aggressive campaign against the Kyoto Protocol, has started holding breakfast meetings with groups of 15-20 potential funders, mainly from the corporate world. The think tank also raises funds in the US and has run into controversy due the financial support it receives from the Exxon Mobil Foundation for "Climate Change Outreach".[24] Gray Conchar did not mention these troubles and recommended to follow IPN's example and establish a US affiliate with 501(C)(3) charity status. This enables foundations to receive tax deductible donations. Kelly-Gagnon added that the Atlas Economic Research Foundation can help channel US funding to those European think tanks that do not have 501(C)(3) status.[25] Based in Arlington, Virginia, the Atlas Foundation, funded by US corporations and rightwing family foundations, works to export the neoliberal think tank model across the globe.[26]

The Stockholm think tank

As well as providing a network function, the Stockholm Network is a think tank itself. It regularly organises debates in Brussels, often under the title "the Amigo Society". These debates, held in Hotel Amigo in central Brussels, focus on issues like (the commercialisation of) health care and (the costliness of) social security, public pension systems and other features of the welfare state. The Stockholm Network also co-hosts events in London and other cities all around Europe.[27] Debates in London, often held in association with the Economist magazine, have titles such as "An apology for capitalism?" (referring to corporate social responsibility, which the Stockholm Network finds unnecessary). Speakers and special guests at recent Stockholm Network events included pro-globalisation guru Johan Norberg, Dutch Social Security Minister Hans Hoogervorst and then European Commissioner Bolkestein. Clearly, the Stockholm Network can access significant funds for its work, which involves organising events in luxury hotels and commissioning costly opinion polls on what European citizens think about health care. With well-funded activities designed to influence on core public policy issues, accessing information about the financiers is a matter of public and democratic concern.

Stockholm Inc: The commercial consultant

In addition to its networking and think tank role, the Stockholm Network operates a commercial consultancy firm called Market House International Ltd. According to the Stockholm Network website, Market House International is "host to the Stockholm Network".[28] Market House International Ltd describes itself as "an ideas and public policy consultancy". Staff includes key people from the Stockholm Network headquarters and Nicole Gray Conchar from the International Policy Network (IPN).[29] The presence of this commercial consulting arm creates further confusion about the Network's funding and web of influence. For example, is it Market House International Ltd. or the Stockholm Network that organises 'think tank tours' and other outreach to promote prominent neoliberal figures like Johan Norberg?[30] Beyond the Stockholm Network, Market House International also works for "a range of corporate and other clients, providing background research, advice and expertise in the public policy sphere."[31] The complex web of interaction and financing only acts to further emphasise the need for financial transparency which details how much funding comes to which institutions and for what purpose.

Free markets?

The Stockholm Network and the Centre for the New Europe have a strong focus on healthcare issues. Both are staunch promoters of the removal of restrictions on advertising for medicines, as well as the commercialisation of health services. However, inconsistent with their radical free-market ideology is their advocacy on the issue of intellectual property rights, which pursues far-reaching corporate patent protection rather than free markets. CNE for instance is deeply involved in campaigning to get the EU to adopt the US model of corporate software patents, the demand of software giants such as Microsoft. This demand is contained in a proposed EU directive that would allow corporations a 20-year monopoly on ideas and knowledge. The think tanks that support this view are opposing civil society groups, including open source software users, who are mobilising against this directive.[32] An example of CNE's work on this controversial issue is the lunch it co-hosted in February 2005, "for people associated with the European Parliament and other opinion leaders". The lunch debate featured speakers from the Progress & Freedom Foundation, a corporate-funded think tank promoting privatisation of knowledge via patents.[33]

Ending the Secrecy Around Corporate Funding

While years away from achieving the size and influence of their US counterparts, there is no doubt that hard-line neo-liberal think tanks in Europe are gaining ground and becoming increasingly effective. As neo-liberal winds blow hard across the continent, the political climate among decision-makers in Europe is clearly more favourable to their ideas. Yet a major force behind their expansion is a growing pool of corporate donations from large corporations and foundations with a radical rightwing agenda. Meanwhile, these think tanks consistently fail to disclose their funding sources. With the exception of Tech Central Station, none of the think tanks mentioned on these pages disclose on their website information about their (corporate) funders. A survey conducted by Corporate Europe Observatory in May-June 2005 revealed a strong culture of secrecy among these think tanks.[34]

This secrecy is deeply problematic. Without the disclosure of funding sources there can be no real scrutiny of think tanks that aim to influence the EU debate and decision-making. While think tanks have the right to advocate their ideological beliefs, it is a matter of serious public concern when secret corporate funding boosts these messages. Not only are these think tanks promoting an economic jungle society with few limits on corporate activity, they are also more than willing to fight specific environmental and health regulations. Therefore they routinely serve as de facto fronts for corporations. The effect is another channel through which corporations, unnoticed, can buy their way into the political debate and seriously undermine democratic process in public policy making.

The financial activity of tobacco giant BAT provides a clear example of this. Visit the company's glossy website and you could be forgiven for believing that this is a company firmly committed to "corporate social responsibility".[35] Information challenging these CSR claims is widely available on the internet, for instance the fact that BAT is currently on trial in the US due to hiding of evidence about the damaging health impacts of smoking. Information about the company's political funding strategies, however, is not available anywhere.[36] The BAT website certainly fails to disclose that the company is actively offering funds to right wing think tanks who believe in blocking health and environment legislation. This secrecy shrouds the company's political influence and protects it from subsequent scrutiny that would reveal a blatant hypocrisy.

Exxon Mobil Donations

According to the annual reports of the Exxon Mobil Corporation, one of the few corporations to disclose their donations, the International Policy Network in 2003 and 2004 received $50,000 and $115,000 respectively, for "climate change outreach"[37]. The Centre for the New Europe was awarded $40,000 and $80,000 respectively for its "Global Climate Change Education Efforts". In 2003, the US-based journo-lobbying website Tech Central Station received $95,000, as did the American Council for Capital Formation. Both have European branches based in Brussels. The largest donations went to the US-based hard-line think tanks Competitive Enterprise Institute ($440,000), American Enterprise Institute ($225,000), the Atlas Economic Research Foundation ($190,000) and the Heritage Foundation ($95,000). Exxon presents these grants as part of its support for "Public information and policy research".

A GROWING TREND

The European Enterprise Institute (EEI) - dedicated to "bring down barriers to business development and growth"[38] - organises regular "black coffee" meetings in Brussels, maybe inspired by the American Enterprise Institute which organises "black coffee briefings" where key neo-conservatives explain their thinking. The EEI, which receives funding from oil giant Exxon, nurtures a less radical image than for instance TechCentralStation and CNE, but a little investigation quickly reveals the hard-line rightwing leanings of this think tank. Christopher Horner, Director of Research at the EEI, is also Senior Fellow at the Washington D.C. based Competitive Enterprise Institute and involved in the Cooler Heads Coalition, a group of industry-funded global warming sceptics. The EEI website links to its US sources of inspiration, such as the American Enterprise Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Cato Institute.[39]

Health Consumer Powerhouse, a new "do-tank" on health care issues. Run by Johan Hjertqvist (formerly of the Health Policy Unit of Swedish freemarket think tank Timbro), Health Consumer Powerhouse has close links to the Centre for a New Europe and the Stockholm Network.[40]

Institut Economique Molinari is a francophone think tank that attacks the Precautionary Principle, denies climate change, defends genetic engineering, and advocates far-reaching forms of (software) patents and unrestricted advertising for medicines.[41]

Institut Hayek (with the slogan "Libéralisme et atlantisme") is a small francophone think tank run entirely by volunteers.[42] Apart from translating Hayek texts, the think tank organises regular lunch debates on issues such as "Europe and the power of NGOs", which included guest speaker Marguerite Peeters. Peeters wrote the book "Hijacking Democracy: The Power Shift to the Unelected" for the American Enterprise Institute.[43]

The Lisbon Council for Economic Competitiveness was only founded two years ago, yet is probably the most visible and influential neoliberal think tank in Brussels. The Lisbon Council, careful to not marginalize itself, is not a member of the Stockholm Network, but there are cosy links.[44]

TechCentralStation.be is the Brussels-based subsidiary of the Washington D.C. based "Journo-Lobbyists" website TechCentralStation.com which is published and funded by Republican lobbying firm DCI Group and its clients, including corporations like Exxon, McDonalds and Microsoft. "Journo-lobbying" is a PR tactic that aims to "dominate the entire intellectual environment in which officials make policy decisions".[45] TCS Europe, whose editor is former European Voice journalist Craig Winneker, runs a website and features columns written by European and US hard-line right-wingers. It has co-organised conferences with the Christian-Democrat parliamentary group (PPE) in the European Parliament. TechCentralStation.be organises debates under the title "The Hayek Series: A Forum for Economic Freedom".[46]

Notes

  1. According to one estimate the number of Washington think tanks has "grown from 70 three decades ago to more than 300 today. And as the numbers have grown, so too has their influence." Under the Influence: Think Tanks and the Money that Fuels Them, Marketplace in cooperation with The Economist Magazine, June 2005.
  2. Founded in 1947 by Friedrich von Hayek, Milton Friedman and other neoliberal guru's. "Internationale Vorbilder und transnationale Organisation deutscher Neoliberaler", Dieter Plehwe, in Gesteuerte Demokratie? Wie neoliberale Eliten Politik und Öffentlichkeit beeinflussen, Müller/Giegold/Arhelger, VSA-verlag, 2004.
  3. http://www.montpelerin.org/aboutmps.html
  4. Between Network and Complex Organization: The Making of Neoliberal Knowledge and Hegemony, Dieter Plehwe and Bernhard Walpen, forthcoming in 2005.
  5. http://www.exxonmobil.com/Corporate/files/corporate/giving_report.pdf http://www.exxonmobil.com/corporate/files/corporate/giving04_publicpolicy.pdf
  6. http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/listorganizations.php
  7. See for instance http://www.pfizerforum.com/policy/tanks.shtml Later the Stockholm Network became part of London-based think tank Civitas (formerly the Health and Welfare Unit of the Institute for Economic Affairs), but since 2004 it is independent.
  8. http://www.stockholm-network.org
  9. http://www.stockholm-network.org/weblinks.cfm
  10. http://www.heritage.org
  11. http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=4287
  12. Two representatives of the Heritage Foundation came to Italy for the media launch of the report in that country.
  13. "At Pfizer, Michael W. Hodin created and developed the International Public Affairs Department, which now boasts operations in roughly 40 Pfizer subsidiaries globally. Programmatically, he created and implemented the Pfizer Forum Advertorial series, which features public policy thought leaders on issues ranging from trade and economics to health care and the environment; the Stockholm Health Care Network in Europe, which connects policy institutions across European countries; and, the Center for the New Europe, a Brussels-based, independent public policy institute dedicated to economic, regulatory and social policy issues of focus in Europe." http://www.consespain-usa.org/intro/biografias/ing/18.html
  14. http://www.stockholm-network.org/pubs/Agenda70203.htm
  15. http://www.cne.org/about2.htm#3
  16. http://www.gaertner-online.de
  17. Examples of think tanks named after Hayek are Friedrich von Hayek Gesellschaft (Germany), Hayek Society (Hungary) and the Hayek Foundation (Slovakia).
    Overview of Stockholm Network membership, copied from: Eye on Europe, Issue 3, Stockholm Network, Winter 2004/05.
  18. The large number of radical free-market think tanks in CEE, while often depicted as the result of the historical trauma caused by communist regimes, is also due to very active missionary work and organisational assistance programmes by think tanks from the US and Western Europe anxious to penetrate with their hard-line laissez faire ideas.
  19. Other examples are the German Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung as well as the Dutch Telderstichting.
  20. The EPC, partly funded by large corporations, "aims to promote a balanced dialogue between the different constituencies of its membership, spanning all aspects of economic and social life." http://www.theepc.be
  21. The Stockholm Network website (and the members list featured in various publications) refers to them as "New Social Market Economy Foundation, Germany".
  22. See photos here: http://www.cne.org/2005_capball/pages/page1.htm Invited guests "enjoy a Champagne reception, a four course dinner, the annual CNE awards ceremony and dancing to an 22-piece swing band". http://www.cne.org/pub_pdf/2005_02_18_ball_notice.htm
  23. http://www.iedm.org
  24. http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/orgfactsheet.php?id=108
  25. http://www.atlas-fdn.org
  26. The Atlas Foundation was founded by Anthony Fisher, a UK citizen who also established the Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA), a model for many neoliberal think tanks.
  27. "Events so far have included seminars on social security hosted by Paradigmes in Paris, on flexible labour markets hosted by Timbro in Stockholm, on pensions at CNE in Brussels, on tax harmonisation in Frankfurt, and, most recently, conferences on the size and scope of Europe's underground economy held in Rome, healthcare and social insurance held in the Netherlands, diversity and choice within European compulsory education systems held in Paris and the role of risk and regulation in a global economy held in Copenhagen." http://www.stockholm-network.org/about.cfm (last checked on July 7 2005).
  28. http://www.stockholm-network.org/weblinks.cfm
  29. Market House International Ltd employs Helen Disney and Sacha Kumaria of the Stockholm Network as well as Nicole Gray Conchar of the International Policy Network (IPN), see http://www.stockholm-network.org/markethouse/?content=staffprofiles The consultancy's website explains that "We exist to help those involved in devising public policy to expand their audience, define their brand and share ideas and best practice with like-minded people. Via our unique European networking service, the Stockholm Network, we also help businesses and other organisations to liaise with think tanks and opinion formers. Our aim is to be a one-stop shop for finding and working with the brightest and most innovative European policymakers and opinion formers." http://www.stockholm-network.org/markethouse (last checked on July 7 2005).
  30. "We have also organised major 'think tank tours' for a range of VIP guests such as Jason Turner, architect of Wisconsin and New York's welfare to work schemes and Johan Norberg, author of In Defence of Global Capitalism . Jason Turner's trip has resulted in Wisconsin-style welfare reforms being piloted in the German state of Hessen. The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has since adopted a version of the Hessen plan, based on Wisconsin, as part of its national party legislative agenda. Johan Norberg's trip has resulted in his book, In Defence of Global Capitalism, being translated into numerous European languages and in regular appearances in the European media including a recent, hour-long documentary on Channel 4." http://www.stockholm-network.org/markethouse/?content=whatwedo (last checked on July 7 2005).
  31. "Market House can help you to sharpen your messages as well as your strategy for getting those messages heard in national and international debates." http://www.market-house.co.uk/
  32. See for instance http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com
  33. See February 15, 2005 posting by PFF Senior Fellow James DeLong, director of the Center for the Study of Digital Property, http://blog.pff.org/digitaleurope/ For a list of PFF funders, see http://www.pff.org/about/supporters.html
  34. The survey was sent to the Centre for European Policy Studies, Centre for a New Europe, European Enterprise Institute, European Policy Centre (EPC), Forum Europe, Health Consumer Powerhouse, Institut Economique Molinari, Institut Hayek, Institut Thomas More Brussels, International Council for Capital Formation, International Policy Network, Lisbon Council, New Defence Agenda, Stockholm Network and TechCentralStation. See also: Transparency unthinkable? Financial secrecy common among EU think tanks, Corporate Europe Observatory, July 2005.
  35. http://www.bat.com
  36. See for instance http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/2002Q4/bat.html
  37. http://www.exxonmobil.com/corporate/files/corporate/giving04_publicpolicy.pdf
  38. http://www.european-enterprise.org
  39. http://www.european-enterprise.org/info/links
  40. http://www.healthpowerhouse.com
  41. http://www.institutmolinari.org
  42. http://www.fahayek.org/
  43. http://www.fahayek.org/index.php?article=1221
  44. Executive Director Ann Mettler (formerly Director for Europe of the World Economic Forum) wrote the opening chapter in the Stockholm Network's report The State of the Union - Market-oriented reform in the EU in 2004. http://www.lisboncouncil.net/files/download/StateoftheUnion_EU.pdf
  45. http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/2004Q4/powers.html
  46. http://www.techcentralstation.be/hayek.html

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