Back to press room

500 candidates for the European elections pledge to curb the power of the financial lobby

Lawmaking

For press enquiries or to receive our press releases via email, please contact:

Finance Watch

Alison Burns

Press Officer

(EN, FR)

Huge support for EU elections campaign by the financial reform coalition Change Finance

Brussels, 22 May 2019 – Days before Europeans go to the polls, 500 candidates for the European Parliament have pledged to challenge the power of the financial lobby over European politics and institutions. Signatories include lead candidates Ska Keller and Bas Eickhout (Greens/EFA), Martin Schirdewan (GUE-NGL), Jude Kirton-Darling (S&Ds) and Pascal Canfin (LREM).

Change Finance – the civil society-led coalition behind the campaign – is delighted that so many prospective MEPs are calling time on business as usual for the financial lobby.

Shonan Kothari from Finance Watch, the independent non-profit association with a mission of making finance serve society, said:

“We are delighted with how popular the pledge has been! These candidates have listened to their voters. They know that the time for the lobby unduly influencing our politics needs to end, if we want to avoid sleepwalking into another financial crisis and to secure a financial system that works for people and planet. We welcome the signatures to date and encourage other candidates to join.”

In the pledge, candidates for the European Parliament are committing to five promises. These promises include measures that would leave the financial lobby with far less firepower, such as reducing to the minimum interactions of all members of EU institutions with financial lobbyists.

ENDS

For more information, please contact:

Notes to editors

The inspiration for this initiative comes from the WHO Convention on Tobacco Control in which article 5.3 prohibits official bodies from exchanges with lobbyists from the tobacco industry.

More information on the campaign – as well as the Change Finance coalition – can be found on https://www.changefinance.org/

For our previous press release, launching this campaign (complete with additional quotes): https://www.finance-watch.org/press-release/hundreds-of-mep-candidates-pledge-to-challenge-the-financial-lobby/

Finance Watch Subscribe to our newsletter

Subscribe to our newsletter

Receive our monthly digest in English, French or German