You're listening.

You're listening to EU, man on the moon, motion.

You're listening to EU Watchdog Radio.

Welcome to a new episode of EU Watchdog Radio. My name is Hans Van Schare media officer at Corporate Europe Observatory, also known as CEO.

And I can assure you, for watchdogs, there is quite a lot to observe and to watch when

it comes to EU decision-making in Brussels and the European capitals.

Unfortunately, the observations are not often that cheerful.

Take agriculture and food policies, for instance.

CEO published a report on the 12th of October, revealing how an unholy alliance of the

big farm and agro business lobby group Copacogica, together with the pesticides and food industry giants, have been

waging a full-blown lobby battle against the EU's Farm to Fork strategy, as well as the

biodiversity strategy.

These two new strategies towards a more sustainable agriculture and a more resilient ecosystem

in Europe were announced in May as

cornerstones of the Commission's President von der Leyen's Green Deal.

The same lobby alliance pushed national governments and members of the European Parliament

to stop the ongoing common agricultural policy or CAP reform from being aligned with this new Green Deal.

Hardly 24 hours after the CEO publication, we were, unfortunately, proven right.

Another unholy coalition of the three biggest political groups, the conservatives of the EPP,

the Social Democrats of the S&D and the Liberals united in renew, all gathered in the European Parliament,

brokered a last-minute deal that basically stripped down the last little glimpses of hope for a cap that can be

called more fair and more green. So the very week that this podcast is being recorded and published,

...