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You're listening to EU Watchdog Radio.

Welcome to a new summer episode of EU Watchdog Radio.

My name is Hans Van Schare, researcher at Corporate Europe Observatory, also known as CEO.

And in this episode, we will very exceptionally talk about ourselves, about CEO as a lobby watchdog,

and we will dive into how it all started 25 years ago.

Yep, you heard that right. This year we celebrate our 25th anniversary.

But we celebrated in a rather moderate way, since at the start of the year, the pandemic was still raging and soon after a war started on the European continent, with a subsequent energy and food crisis.

Not exactly a very festive momentum.

But while discussing the history of CEO, we will automatically also discuss parts of the political

and economical history of the European Union, as we know it today.

And we sincerely hope that by listening to

co-founders of CEO Olivier Huderman and Belen Balagna, who explain how it all begun, you'll

understand a bit more of why the European Union functions today as it does. Here we go for a trip

down memory lane.

Olivier Belen, welcome to this anniversary podcast.

25 years of CEO, lobbying, watchdog and researching and campaigning.

Do you feel in any way it's time for celebrating?

Do you feel in a festive mood or what is your mood when you think about 25 years to you? I think it's something very special 25 years. It's a long time.

We're still around. We've managed to renew ourselves. We've achieved a lot also, I think.

At the same time,

...