Ordinary people need to rival big business in fight for change

A REPORT launched by Friends of the Earth shows how important it is that ordinary consumers and voters stay in touch with what is being planned for them.

Irish people tend to be blasé about such things, content to argue they have no power over what is being done in their name. The budget cuts show just how passive we are with none of the big uprisings seen in other countries in response to such policies.

Other surveys show how bad we are at complaining over poor service or shoddy goods, preferring to appear nice rather than risk a row by insisting on our rights.

Being assertive can be more important than just getting better value for our money. It can determine whether we have any control over our democracy and the way our country is run. Luckily, vigilance has become easier with increased transparency and new means of spreading information. Citizens cannot really plead ignorance or powerlessness — only laziness if they do not become involved.

The Friends of the Earth (FoE) report shows that when it comes to making a profit big business is not lazy. It looks after its business very well, as its shareholders would expect.

Because it is well organised, has money and makes it its business to influence, its interests are well taken care of.

The FoE report looks at a number of groups set up by the European Commission to advise it on policy and new legislation. The groups it investigated are all in the area of enterprise and industry and deal with vehicles, pharmaceuticals and chemicals, energy and agri-food. The FoE found that more than half of the non-governmental members were from the corporate world. The pharmaceutical group was the only one it considered to be balanced.

As a result, it says, standards in the area of the environment, competition, and even safety have been diluted on the basis that tougher standards would impair the ability of business to compete.

Before anyone rushes off and condemns the European Commission for being biased in favour of industry however, it should be remembered that it tends to take its direction from the member states. Four years ago the EU member states leaders’ were all in favour of giving big business a freer hand, so they decided every law must pass the test of “competitiveness”.

The second point is that big business influence does not stop at the European Commission. It begins in the member states but most citizens are unaware of this as very little, if any, information about how our TDs, senators and the Oireachtas are influenced is available to the ordinary voter.

It needs to be noted that other commission advisory groups, such as on climate change, have a much more balanced membership.

As well as demanding that the commission ensures balances in all areas, citizens should insist that our government comes clean on who influences its legislation. Even if most of our laws originate in the EU, our government plays a key role in shaping it at EU level when our ministers and civil servants and MEPs work in committees tweaking and changing it.

This needs people to engage in democracy, not just when the politician comes knocking on the door looking for a vote. Ordinary people can make their voice heard through a myriad of means, one of them being making submissions to the European Commission when it holds public consultations online or by mail with the public and anybody interested about draft legislation.

* To keep in touch and become engaged go to http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/index_en.htm and to check out the Commission in Ireland, go to: http://ec.europa.eu/ireland/press_office/index_en.htm