How the fossil gas lobby lured MEPs with donations to UN child fund

3 September 2019

New documents show how the gas lobby broke EU transparency rules by offering donations to the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) in exchange for meetings with MEPs. In response to a formal complaint that Friends of the Earth Europe submitted, the EU's Joint Transparency Register confirmed that its code of conduct had been broken. However, weak ethics regulations mean that the gas industry - and FTI consulting, which was paid to lobby on its behalf - will walk away with a slap on the wrist. The EU needs enforceable sanctions for violations if ethics codes are going to be taken seriously.